Hours After Needing MRI, LSU’s Brian Kelly Fires Direct Shots at Rival HC Over Disrespect

LSU’s 17-10 triumph at Clemson felt more like a plot twist than a routine Week 1 result. A crowd of 81,500 at Memorial Stadium watched the visiting Tigers flip a 10-3 halftime deficit into their first season-opening win since 2019, nudging their record to 1-0 while handing Clemson its first home loss in an opener under Dabo Swinney. Garrett Nussmeier’s eight-yard strike to freshman tight end Trey’Dez Green with 12:18 left put LSU ahead for good, and Harold Perkins Jr. headlined a defense that limited the hosts to 31 rushing yards on 20 carries and sealed the night by stuffing Clemson’s final drive at the LSU 15.

LSU’s second-half surge was no accident. LSU was clocked at 150 yards after intermission to Clemson’s 60, a reversal propelled by Nussmeier’s quick trigger and a front seven that harassed Cade Klubnik into hurried check-downs. Moreover, LSU finished plus-one in turnover margin, the lone takeaway coming on Mansoor Delane’s third-quarter interception that set up a tying touchdown. In other words, the visitors owned the critical moments even if the box score never turned lopsided.

Swinney, ever the professor of folksy metaphors, tried to grade the chaos. “It was a hell of a game right down to the last play. It’s like getting the final exam on day one of class. They made a 65, we made a 58. Neither one of us were great,” he told reporters Tuesday, casting the showdown as pass-fail with room for extra credit. The self-deprecating 58 suggested Clemson’s coach saw plenty to correct, particularly a run game that never cleared two yards a carry and a red-zone sequence that ended with an illegal-touch pass wiped off the board. But the 65 suggested he didn’t think LSU played all that well, either.

Enter Brian Kelly with a red pen in hand. Asked on Tuesday about Swinney’s sliding scale, Kelly couldn’t resist: “I thought we dominated them in the second half. So he’s either a really good grader, giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us, or he didn’t see the second half… he might not have wanted to see the second half.” Ouch. This is what happens when you can talk smack and back it up. Castellanos did it in reverse but still backed it up. And Brian Kelly ain’t the one to let anything slide. The punch line captured a coach who clearly prefers plus-minus to curved tests. Kelly’s jab landed because the numbers backed him up.LSU out-first-downed Clemson 12-5 after the break and never trailed again.

The exchange adds spicy footnotes to what could become a season-long argument between two playoff hopefuls. Swinney’s Tigers get an immediate reset with FCS Charleston Southern, while Kelly’s bunch returns to Baton Rouge eyeing a leap up the polls. If both teams run their respective gauntlets, that “65-58” exam might resurface in December’s committee meetings, only this time the graders will sit in a Dallas boardroom rather than behind a podium with a quip ready.

“A full-roll” moment for LSU’s head coach

Late in the third quarter at Clemson, Brian Kelly strayed a step too deep into the sideline box and paid for it when an umpire back-pedaled straight into his hip, sending the 63-year-old coach airborne. TV cameras caught Kelly tumbling backward, headset flying, before he popped up in time to bark the next call, embarrassed and relieved. According to multiple LSU staffers, the spill left him with a stiff lower back and a precautionary trip for an MRI first thing Monday morning.

Pat McAfee couldn’t resist turning the clip into a mini-film study on his show. “Brian Kelly did a back bomb and a full roll getting trucked by a ref,” McAfee laughed. “He smacks his head off the ground, loses the headset, wants to chew off the ref—then he quickly realizes he’s in the wrong: ‘I’m not supposed to be standing in the white.’” McAfee even praised the official for swallowing his flag in that chaotic second:“I think the ref saw Brian Kelly’s face tumbling around and thought, he’s suffered enough.” The former Colts punter then delivered the newsy punch line: “Our sources have told us that Brian Kelly went in for an MRI this morning.”

For LSU fans, the episode lands somewhere between slapstick and a sigh of relief. Kelly’s borderline cartwheel didn’t go to waste because his team had passed its first top-ten road test of the season. The coach’s sideline reminder is to stay out of the white and to keep your head on a swivel. Fortunately for the Tigers, this one ends with nothing more serious than a bruised ego, a clean MRI, and a week’s worth of fodder for McAfee’s highlight reel.