Irked Kelly fires back at doubters after LSU win

BATON ROUGE, La. -- No. 3 LSU's 20-10 win over Florida began with a pregame scuffle between players from both teams and ended with fireworks from Tigers coach Brian Kelly, who defiantly defended the style of his team's victory.

The Tigers' dominant defense never allowed Florida quarterback DJ Lagway to get comfortable and intercepted him five times, holding their third straight opponent to 10 points or fewer. The offense, meanwhile, scuffled its way to 322 total yards, including 102 rushing -- 51 of which came on LSU's final offensive play before it went into victory formation, when Caden Durham broke free down the left sideline on third-and-1 with 1:49 left to ice the win and keep the Tigers undefeated (3-0, 1-0 SEC).

Afterward, Kelly said the game was "one of the SEC classics" and foreshadowed his mindset by praising punter Grant Chadwick, who averaged 50.4 yards per kick and pinned the Gators (1-2, 0-1) inside the 20 four times.

"Sorry that that doesn't sound appealing to you folks, but I really don't care," Kelly said. "We're trying to win football games."

The first question he got was about his offense, and Kelly didn't wait for it to finish before going on the offensive.

"Stop. Really?" Kelly said. "Is that the first question? We won the game 20-10. Try another question. What do you want me to tell you? I just laid it out for you. We played the game to win the game."

He batted away a second question about his third-down offense and a third about the struggles of the running game. He went right back to Durham's run, when the Tigers lined up in an I-formation when everyone knew they were going to hand it off.

"We can run the ball," Kelly said. "Did you see the last play of the game? That's all you need. You just need one.

"These are ridiculous questions, and I'm getting tired of it. That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win. And you want to know what's wrong? You're spoiled. ... This is ridiculous for a group of seasoned reporters. That kind of question is so out of line."

Kelly spent the rest of his news conference saying "great question!" to anyone who asked a pertinent question about a key player or a defensive star, such as Dashawn Spears, who had his first two career interceptions, including returning one 58 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers the final 20-10 lead with about eight minutes left in the third quarter.

"I see it so differently than you guys. You want to immediately attack it. I love what they did tonight. They found a way to win," Kelly said. "And if you guys don't like that, I really don't care. I'm so happy for those guys because they're in there singing because they worked their tails off tonight. That's the point. I'm not trying to embarrass you, but it was a stupid question."

Kelly's performance was the end of a testy night all around. In pregame, Florida players made a lap around the field, staring down hecklers in the crowd, with players from both teams getting into a shoving match following what the Tiger Stadium press box announcer described as a "get together" near the student section. No penalties were handed out, but there was a police presence on the field for much of warmups. The game ended with LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier being knocked down while kneeling in victory formation and walking toward the Florida bench and nodding his head.

The Tigers lost star linebacker Whit Weeks on the first defensive series due to a targeting penalty then lost his brother, fellow star linebacker West Weeks, to a calf injury.

"But we have a third Weeks," Kelly touted, of their younger brother Zach, a freshman. "He doesn't even know where the Cox Center is for academic support. He went out there, and he flew around."

Kelly said there were many ways the Tigers could have lost this game. He acknowledged the offense needs improvement but said the Tigers were smart and managed the game. He noted nobody was happy in 2023, when LSU had a prolific offense but the defense ranked 80th nationally and it was forced to get in high-scoring shootouts.

"That doesn't work. You can't outscore people and be a championship team," Kelly said. "You can build your offense around the defense if it's that good, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to get better on offense and more efficient. But at the end of the day, we're not going to put our defense in a bad situation, and that's what we have to get better at."

Nussmeier finished 15-of-27 for 220 yards and a touchdown, but Kelly wasn't a fan of a costly interception when the Tigers were in field goal range. Two plays after a 65-yard catch-and-run by tight end Bauer Sharp, Nussmeier was picked off by Dijon Johnson at the Florida 30.

Kelly said the offensive line is obviously a work in progress, noting that it lost four NFL draft picks from last season. But his takeaway remained that the Tigers are good enough to win, particularly with the home-field atmosphere, noting that LSU is 17-1 at night since Kelly has been in Baton Rouge.

"I mean there's great emotion out there. The fans are into it. We got [LED] wristbands. We got lights," Kelly said. "Somebody said the Tiger [mascot] was great at dancing in the end zone to keep everybody happy. Nobody likes the offense. You guys are killing me."