Brian Kelly Announces Aggressive Measures for $60M LSU Future After Strong Denial of Serious Allegations

The off-season roster building has been a focal point in a boring post-season stalemate in the college football territory. The reason is quite obvious. From facing the legacy of the previous season to embarking on a new journey, the depth chart serves as a crucial foundation. Immediately after a season ends, teams and coaches quickly access the portal to acquire quality players for roster revamps and solid comeback strategies. Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers have been no different. He announced that he would go all in stockpiling talents and strategizing them according to the team’s needs.

But little did we know that he is already foreseeing 2027 on the cusp of 2025 and 2026.

Brian Kelly adorns his 2027 roster with an early aggressive move

LSU came off fresh from a Junior Day where they hosted not only just the 2025 class but also welcomed the next two years’ walk-on prospects. University Lab quarterback Emile Picarella has been one prime among them. The No. 40 ranked player in the state of Louisiana, Picarella has played an instrumental role in taking the University to the state semifinals as a junior in 2023, throwing for 2,312 yards and 34 touchdowns while completing over 71% of his passes. Now, he is on his way to developing more and more and contributing to Brian Kelly’s offense in the next two years.

But what did his trajectory look like? Despite being a local QB, Kelly has not had the luxury of being very sure about him. His numbers and staggering talents have already made it a musical chair for Brian Kelly and the team. But eventually, he gets his way back home. ON3’s Shea Dixon explained, ”I think it was one of those things where Ole Miss and others had been involved over the past year, and then, I think you looked at some of the in-state schools and weighed his options. I haven’t heard from him, but I’ve talked to others that he feels, ‘Hey look, I want to come to LSU. I want to be a Tiger. I’ll take a PWO [Preferred Walk-on] over some smaller offers and kind of see where it takes me,’ and they’ll take another arm in the quarterback room right now.”

The purple and gold are not foreign to Picarella’s game, observing him closely in several camps over the years and with him being just a few steps away from the football facility at U-High. It’s a no-brainer that turned a lot of heads, including top-tier programs like Oregon and Georgia. Time will tell whether or not he can push for reps down the stretch, but coach Joe Sloan stands firm on his faith.

Shea Dixon continued, ”

With Signing Day, what tomorrow? Yeah, I guess I’m sure U-high will have some sort of ceremony, but he’ll be honored as a PWO and add one more to the quarterback room, who is a familiar face, and I think we’ve got him listed as 6’2-210. Anyone who’s from Baton Rouge has seen him play, so I think it’s one of those where Joe Sloan gets the green light right away.” Picarella will not count against the 85-man scholarship count on LSU’s 2025 roster, but watch him unfold in the ranks of Nussmeier, Van Buren, and Hurley at Baton Rouge.

Recently, Kelly has faced a lot of criticism for his lack of presence with his players, particularly in the case of former player Greg Brooks Jr., whose father accused him of not even reaching out to the family or the child for once due to a significant discrepancy. Brian Kelly defended himself on National Signing Day, saying he had been present on multiple occasions.

But what is important, amidst all the chaos, is that Kelly continues to hold a high vision of his aggressive recruitment policy for the approaching years, nonetheless.

Brian Kelly goes all in for the roster building this time

Brian Kelly, who has a $60 million problem (his buyout money) with being let go by the Tigers, was a bit more conservative in the recruiting policy in 2024, and it didn’t help out. But after seeing a lot of mishaps and holes, he decided to change a little bit and take a more upfront approach overall.

Despite losing the No. 1 QB in the 2025 class, Bryce Underwood, to Michigan, Kelly has been hopeful for the February signing period.

Kelly made it a point how he doesn’t want LSU to be a totally transfer portal-driven team year in and year out. This year’s 9-4 hit them with a reality check, and it made it a mandate to build the kind of championship roster with much depth and experience.

“We had 16 total transfers come in, eight on offense, seven on defense, and one special teams player. We’re pretty excited about that; they give us an experienced group that has played high-level football and blends into the existing program that we have.” Kelly’s face seems bright when vouching for a national title-worthy team building. Maybe not immediately (in 2025 or 2026), but definitely, Tigers are shaping up to be the proverbial beast they are.