Brian Kelly took over a LSU program that has fallen into mediocrity after winning the national championship in 2019.

He has assembled his first coaching staff, and now the Tigers are getting ready to see what the 2022 squad looks like during spring practices starting next month.

On Wednesday, Kelly met with the media and said if the season started tomorrow, the Tigers wouldn’t be ready. He said getting his team ready for Week 1 this fall will be a process (via On3 Sports):

“We’re not ready to play,” Kelly said. “If we have to play tomorrow, we’re not ready yet. But we will be ready. It’s going to be a process for us. I like the facts — like many teams that I’ve had in the past, at this time, this is the fifth time I’ve done this — there’s a want to. They recognize, and they are aware of what they’ve done the last two years. Cumulatively, it’s been .500. And that’s not good enough. So there is a desire to want to change that. And so, there is that want to.

“Now, we’ve got a lot of things that we’ve got to work on to be the championship program that we want to be. But I guess like everything else, as long as we have a group of players that are committed to do what we want to do here, we’re pretty confident that we can get them there come opening day.”

The Tigers finished with a 6-7 overall record in 2021. We’ll see if Kelly can improve on that mark in Year 1 in Baton Rouge.