Brian Kelly stressed that he’s at LSU to win championships and nothing else when asked about retaining assistants at Tuesday’s press conference.

The defense in particular has been an issue with LSU this season.

The only team that allowed more yards per game in the SEC this year was Vanderbilt. The Tigers’ defense under Matt House allowed the 2nd-most at 409.2 yards per game.

Kelly felt for LSU fans who have been saying that changes need to be made on defense.

“Look, 9-3, we’re here to win championships. Our defense did not play to the level that our standard is set at,” said Kelly. “Nobody is happy, including everybody on the defensive side and the head football coach, that we didn’t play the kind of defense necessary. Our fans shouldn’t be happy about it. And we have to do things to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

The LSU coach took time to correct the notion that LSU is just now looking into its staff and assured reporters that it’s been doing so since the Ole Miss game.

“To say that we’re addressing it now is just not correct. We started addressing it after the Mississippi game,” said Kelly. “This process has been ongoing. It’s not like all of a sudden, ‘Hey, by the way, you gotta fix the defense.’ This has been ongoing. We feel the pain of everybody because we feel it too. It’s gotta be better and it will be better.”