Brian Kelly said the SEC office felt the hit by Alabama’s Dallas Turner on LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels last Saturday did not reach the league’s definition of targeting.

The hit knocked Daniels out of the Bayou Bengals’ 42-28 loss to the Crimson Tide. Kelly was asked about it on Thursday when he met with reporters.

Daniels was dropping back to pass and fired off a deep ball right as Turner hit him. Initially, Turner appeared to be in good position to avoid a head-t0-head collision, but as Daniels released the ball he turned his head and caught Turner’s facemask to the chin. The play was not flagged.

“The tackle by Harold that was called a horse collar tackle and the tackle on Jayden that was not a horse collar. Both were tackled by the back of the collar, but then there are semantics after that that change whether it’s horse collar,” Kelly said. “So you can get hit in the face, but semantics would change whether that’s targeting. You can get grabbed by the back of the collar, but semantics then would change whether that’s a horse-collar tackle.

“It’s hard for me to really comment because when it’s explained, there’s an explanation to, yes, he was hit in the head or neck area which is a criterion, but these things happened so it’s not (targeting)… In those instances, I’m left to say it’s up to interpretation.”

The hit also left Daniels’ status for this week’s game against Florida up in the air. Kelly said Daniels practiced on Thursday and listed him as probable for the game.