By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU football coach Brian Kelly had a spring in his step Monday at his weekly press conference.
And it was not only because his team broke a three-game losing streak with a 24-17 win over Vanderbilt at home Saturday night, and Thanksgiving on Thursday. Kelly has gotten over the loss of No. 1-ranked prep quarterback Bryce Underwood flipping his near 11-month commitment to LSU and flip to Michigan last week, and he is embracing LSU’s now larger Name, Image & Likeness war chest because it will not be emptied for Underwood.
LSU was prepared to pay Underwood, a Detroit native who was also the No. 1 prospect overall in the nation, in the neighborhood of $2 million a year for three or four years with a top of possibly $10 million for four. Michigan’s growing offers to Underwood, meanwhile, were growing closer to $12 or $15 million for four years.
Regardless of what the final numbers will be for Michigan or would have been from LSU, Kelly has an excellent treasure trove of Underwood windfall cash available for the NCAA Transfer Portal with the next window of activity scheduled for Dec. 9 through Dec. 28, then April 16-24.
“We’ll be very aggressive,” Kelly said Monday at his weekly press conference when asked about taking advantage of the extra money from Underwood’s flip. “Everybody that’s followed us knows that we weren’t very aggressive in the transfer portal (last year). We put together a defensive line using minimal resources.”
Kelly passed on some expensive defensive linemen in the portal last year because they mirrored the talents of players LSU already had.
“We’ve really put ourselves in a position now, and I’ll use this term loosely, to stay well under the cap, so we could be quite aggressive this year,” Kelly mused, comparing the transfer portal to NFL free agency. “And we will be very aggressive in that area (in the portal) as well as bringing in 16 mid-years (high school signees who graduate early in December and can be at LSU in January).”
Yes, Kelly, who has repeatedly said he wants to build his program primarily through high school recruitment and only pick and choose in the portal, is swinging – for this next off-season, at least – LSU’s portal door wide open.
HELP WANTED AT LSU: Transfer Within
Kelly expects it to be “maybe one of – if not the largest – transfer portal classes,” he said.
He might as well post a sign on LSU’s sideline for Saturday’s prime time season finale against Oklahoma (6 p.m., ESPN) proclaiming, “Help Wanted! TRANSFER WITHIN at the football office – (225) 578 —-.”
“At the time when we were looking at players who made sense for us last year, they duplicated a lot of things,” Kelly said of passing on portal players last year. “We don’t have that duplication in the program anymore. So that’s why, in certain areas, we’ll be very aggressive.”
LSU also will be done paying high NIL prices to such 2024 stars as left tackle Will Campbell, right tackle Emery Jones Jr. and linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. The three juniors were among the highest NIL paid Tigers this past season, and all three are expected to enter the 2025 NFL Draft, though Perkins may be considering a return as he has missed most of the season with a knee injury.
“All of them are strategic decisions that you make from year to year,” Kelly said. “It just didn’t present for us in the manner that we felt like we were going to reach last year on some things.”
BRIAN KELLY SUDDENLY CHANGED HIS STRATEGY
Funny, just last week when Kelly was asked – considering a three-game losing streak at the time – if he would be trying to make a bigger splash in the portal, he basically said no.
“The transfer portal will be something we have to investigate and look at,” he said. “But I do not want a program that is built on the portal. We have to rely on young players. We’re playing a lot of young players right now.”
He made those comments three days before Underwood flipped to Michigan.
Kelly, recruiting coordinator Frank Wilson and associate athletic director for football administration Austin Thomas have already been meeting regularly about the 2025 roster.
“We’re having meetings with players, so it starts with retention first of players who have to make decisions relative to whether they’re going to move on to the NFL or stay here,” Kelly said. “Retaining players that you want. The second part is the ongoing recruiting process. The third level is the transfer portal, and identifying particular positions that you believe you need to go out and get a mature player who has played snaps at that position at a level that can impact your roster right away.”
And in the meantime, Kelly and his staff will be preparing the Tigers (7-4, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) for Oklahoma (6-5, 2-5 SEC), which just knocked off No. 7 Alabama, 24-3, on Saturday.
“So, there’s a lot going on as we continue to work on our team to get W’s and have positive outcomes,” he said “There’s a lot going on in college football, and it has caused a lot of gray hairs. It has caused some guys to say, ‘I think I’d rather be doing something else.’”
Nick Saban, 73, retired after last season, largely because of the NIL and portal. Chip Kelly, 61, left the UCLA head coaching job on his own to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator so he could just focus on football instead of the constant pull of roster management, NIL and the transfer portal. He lost money in the process.
But Kelly, 63, sounded on Monday ready to blaze new trails and looking forward to his fourth season at LSU, coming off his worst one after a pair of 10-win seasons, but no playoffs for three straight years.
“I’m excited about it,” he said. “I’m excited about what the roster can look like. I’m excited about what kind of football team we can put on the field. And it’s going to be a fun couple months.”
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