Brian Kelly’s LSU Honors Cancer Battling Alum With Big Tribute as Family Shares Emotional Message

The 2025 college football season kicks off under a cloud of questions—hot seats, playoff dreams, and uncertain futures. Yet for now, college football programs are setting aside the scoreboard and focusing on something far bigger: touching hearts. In Texas, 20 programs united, placing green ribbons to honor the lives lost in the devastating July floods. Across the Gulf, Brian Kelly’s LSU Tigers showed the same spirit, paying tribute to a courageous alum fighting cancer. Whether Kelly’s future on the sideline is secure or not, his team’s actions have already won the admiration, making the alum’s family their biggest fan.

The LSU head coach might be juggling too many things at the moment. After all, he now faces himself in the mirror, after giving the ultimatum, “Judge me after three years into the program.” That’s when a 2x Super Bowl winner chimed in to shift the pointing finger from Kelly to his assistant coach. But for now, Kelly and his Tigers are leaving no stone unturned to make this special someone happy.

On August 29, Wilson Alexander tweeted, “@ALLYCE_TRAPP is a proud two-time LSU grad, so to see Tiger Stadium lit up for her the night before the opener… man. Thank you, LSU, for the support during a difficult time. Our family will always cherish this image.” Wilson is the husband of the LSU alum, Allyce Trapp Alexanders, who has been battling cancer. She is an LSU alum and a Government Affairs Advisor at Adams and Reese in Baton Rouge, per her LinkedIn bio.

Allyce earned her bachelor’s degree in 2016 and her Master’s degree in 2020 from LSU. Even though she is not someone directly related to the Tigers program, it did not stop Kelly from honoring her fight. Their home ground, the Tiger Stadium, was lit up in her honor. Not just the football program, the whole of Baton Rouge stands by the LSU alum in her battle to defeat the terminal disease. As in another tweet, her husband posted a picture of the lit-up Louisiana State Capitol. 

The note of gratitude read, “Thank you to the people who made this happen. The top of the Louisiana State Capitol tonight is yellow in honor of @ALLYCE_TRAPP and the fight against angiosarcoma 💛.” In another tweet, Wilson wrote, “Today, George W. Bush sent a message, and the Crescent City Connection is bathed in yellow. All for @ALLYCE_TRAPP. I’m amazed by what our friends are doing to honor her. And so grateful 💛.” 

Kelly has always shown that he has a big heart. Last December, the LSU head coach announced the start of the ‘Kelly Family Million Dollar Match Challenge’, where they will match up to $1 million in donations given to the program’s NIL. But at the end of the day, he got to prove himself in how he leads his pack on the gridiron.   

Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers face the heat from analysts

Already, the college football analysts are sitting with a ‘no mercy for Brian Kelly’ mindset. On the Adapt & Respond podcast, host RJ Young quoted an anonymous SEC coach who did not mince his words while commenting on the LSU head coach. He said, “They have playoff expectations here, and it’s a better depth chart than he’s had in Baton Rouge. If they aren’t in the CFP, I think there’s some serious pressure here.” Yes, there exists a redemption arc in the Tigers’ squad.

Kelly refused to hit the brakes and went full throttle on the transfer portal, dishing out $13 million in NIL deals. After the Bryce Underwood heartbreak, LSU kicked things into overdrive, bumping its total NIL spending to around $18 million. Running with quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and big names like Nic Anderson, Trey’Dez Green, the expectations are hitting the roof. 

Well, the analysts can’t be blamed. After all, Kelly himself believes it. “This is the best roster that we’ve put together,” the LSU head coach told CFB critic, Paul Finebaum, during the SEC Spring Meetings. Here comes a reality check from the 2X Super Bowl Winner, Booger McFarland.

On the Always College Football with Greg McElroy, instead of Kelly, he had put the LSU offensive coordinator, Joe Sloan, on the hot seat. He said, “At some point, I think if you’re Joe Sloan, the OC, you’ve got to show a willingness to run the football. Because if I’m a defensive lineman, if I’m Peter Woods, if I’m [T.J.] Parker, and I know that all we’re doing is getting off the rock, rushing the passer, man, you can’t block me because the defensive line, we’re better athletes than the offensive line. And if I know what you’re doing, it’s going to be even harder for you to block me. So, I think to answer your question directly, it has to happen.” 

2025 is here, and it’s time to see if LSU has a few tricks up its sleeve.