Looking ahead to LSU’s second matchup against a B1G (?) power (??????)
Brian Kelly had his weekly press conference with Baton Rouge media, where he recapped LSU’s 36-33 win over South Carolina and previewed this Saturday’s game against UCLA.
LSU’s win over South Carolina wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing, but it was a win nonetheless and Kelly said that while his team does need to improve, they’ve built the habits necessary to win.
“I think what’s important from an entire team standpoint, to win games like that you have to understand habits. Winning’s a habit and losing’s a habit, and if you have losing habits you don’t win those games. This group has the right habits and now we have to be able to clean up the things technically.”
Kelly wasn’t having any discussion about some controversial calls made by the officials, specifically the two interceptions returned for touchdowns that were negated by South Carolina penalties.
“They looked like fouls to me,” Kelly said. “But I’m not here each and every week to complain about calls or not complain about calls. Games are won by the players and lost by the players.”
“I haven’t seen in my years coaching that officiating decides the game,” Kelly concluded.
“We’re not that far off,” Kelly said when asked about his defense getting burned for two long touchdown runs. “If we make the two plays that we should make, just being fundamentally sound on the two run plays, we’re going to give up less than 250 yards in total offense.”
Kelly of course previewed LSU’s upcoming opponent, the UCLA Bruins who is of course a longstanding pillar of the Big 10 conference.
“A team that has a lot of veterans. I don’t know that there’s a freshman or a sophomore on their defense,” Kelly said of UCLA’s defense. “Big defensive linemen, athletic linebackers, and guys with a lot of experience on the back end of their defense.”
“This is a lot about us and how we clean up the things we need to clean up to be a better football team, playing against now a Big 10 opponent that wants to go on the road and, as we’ve seen, everybody’s going to want to play their very best against LSU.”