There’s a time and place for what Brian Kelly said. Or rather, what Kelly tried to say.

Let’s back up for a minute because proper context is needed to dissect why the LSU coach made headlines for what would previously be considered a standard cliché coach quote in early May.

On the heels of missing out on coveted transfer portal defensive tackles Damonic Williams (he picked Oklahoma) and Simeon Barrow Jr. (he picked Miami), Kelly did an interview with WAFB’s Jacques Doucet in which the soundbite that made the rounds was “we’re not going to go out and buy players.”

In 2024, that was not the time or place to say that.

Obviously, there was more than that single line. Here is the full sequence from the interview with Doucet:

Doucet: “So the interior D-linemen, where are you right now with that?”

Kelly: “Well, I think I made it pretty clear in a number of the press conferences I had that we were in the market in recruiting in the transfer portal looking for defensive linemen. It hasn’t fared very well quite frankly because we’re selling something a little bit differently. And that is, we want to recruit, we want to engage, we want to build relationships, we want to develop, retain and have success. We’re not in the market of buying players. And unfortunately, right now, that’s what some guys are looking for. They want to be bought.

“Look. I understand that NIL is part of this, and we have an incredible collective. We have very, very generous opportunities around the greater Baton Rouge area for NIL opportunities. They are here. But we’re not gonna go out and buy players. That’s not what this is about. This was never about that. We will develop you, we will get you ready for the next step, as we did with Jayden Daniels, as we did with Malik Nabers, as we did with Brian Thomas. We developed 3 defensive linemen that all got drafted this year, and we’ll do that again.

“But if you’re just looking to get paid, you’re looking in the wrong place. If you like all the things we do here, and developing our players, bringing you into a championship program, playing in front of the best fan base in America, playing for championships and having an opportunity for NIL, you should be a Tiger. But if you just want to get paid, it’s not the place for ya.”

There’s a lot to break down in that. A lot.

For starters, yes, LSU whiffed in a key area of need in the portal. After Maason Smith, Jordan Jefferson and Mekhi Wingo were selected in the NFL Draft, Jacobian Guillory was the lone interior defensive lineman on LSU’s roster who played at least 50 snaps last year. He was a rotational guy who played 30 snaps in a game once. That’s for an LSU team that didn’t sign a single interior defensive lineman in the 2023 class.

Landing Williams, Barrow or even Kent State defensive lineman CJ West, who committed to Indiana on Wednesday, would’ve been a nice boost at a position of need after LSU was woefully bad on defense in 2023.

Kelly bluntly said those guys got more money elsewhere, and that’s why they didn’t come to LSU. Kelly admitted their pursuits came up short, seemingly in that all-important area.

What Kelly’s comment fails to acknowledge is that LSU had a seat at the table with those coveted defensive tackles because of all the things he mentioned — the atmosphere, the culture, the path to the NFL, etc. But yeah, maybe once the list is narrowed to a handful of schools that also check those boxes, money tipped the scales.

That doesn’t mean Kelly is failing at his job or that he’s destined to get fired in a couple of years. Kelly gutted his entire defensive staff. He poached Mizzou defensive coordinator Blake Baker to make him the highest-paid assistant in America and also brought highly regarded Texas defensive line coach Bo Davis back to Baton Rouge. Those changes should still be a net positive coming from a coach who understands that defensive improvements are paramount.

It should, however, frustrate a fan base to hear Kelly speak about roster shortcomings like that, much like last year when preseason All-American Harold Perkins unsuccessfully got his feet wet at a new position in a season-opening game with major Playoff implications.

LSU had a clear area of need. Kelly admitted that, and he clumsily admitted that money stood in the way of addressing that need. He could’ve simply said, “I studied the market and didn’t feel those guys were worth what they sought.”

Fans can deal with coming up short on the field. When LSU came up short against Georgia in the SEC Championship in Kelly’s first season, there was a consensus feeling that loss was easier to stomach because it came on the heels of winning the SEC West and it earned that opportunity a year removed from having 39 scholarship players in a bowl game. Georgia was the eventual 15-0 national champ and Jayden Daniels was knocked out of the game before halftime. It happens.

What title-hungry fan bases don’t want to hear is that their team came up short off the field for financial reasons, especially not from the coach working on the $95 million contract after he replaced the guy who got paid $17 million to go away.

If the transfer portal and college football as a whole has become free agency, think of it this way: If the New Orleans Saints hosted some big-time free agents on a visit but then missed out, picture coach Dennis Allen getting in front of a microphone and saying that “yeah, the guys we wanted just didn’t buy into our culture and they went elsewhere because they got better offers.” He’d get blasted 6 ways to Sunday for a comment like that. Adding to the vitriol would be the fact that Allen isn’t Sean Payton, who won a Super Bowl.

If Kelly already had a ring and he made that comment midseason, it might be met with an eye roll because it comes off as cliché coach-speak. Time and place are everything, though.

The time and place of Mark Stoops’ comments about Georgia “buying” players last year was significant because it came in a postgame press conference after Kentucky got its doors blown off.

“I just encourage them to donate more because that’s what those dudes are doing. I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players,” Stoops said in Oct. 2023. “You’re allowed to these days. We could use some help.”

Stoops’ comments might not have had a universal approval rating because of the time and place — that gets back to fans not wanting to feel like their team is coming up short off the field for financial reasons — but he didn’t come off as out of touch.

Jimbo Fisher came off out of touch when he went scorched earth on Nick Saban for saying that A&M “bought every player on their team” to land a historic recruiting class in 2022. While there was a certain level of respect for Fisher because he didn’t back down from Saban, there was also the head-scratching response of “we didn’t buy any players” and that A&M didn’t do anything wrong … even though Saban never said that A&M cheated.

Buying players is the world we live in. Adapt or die.

Kelly’s hopes of getting to the 12-team Playoff might not die because of the failed pursuit of coveted defensive tackles. His secondary could derail the Tigers’ chances. Shoot, maybe a few mistake-heavy games from Garrett Nussmeier will be the difference in a Playoff run.

But in 2024, it’s no longer acceptable for coaches to come up short of a title because of clear, addressable deficiencies and then blame it on “the way things are now.”

Kelly hasn’t come up short of a title in the 2024 season yet, nor is it a failed season if LSU can’t get to Atlanta. There’s more margin for error than ever. Maybe we’ll see some flawed teams sneak into the 12-team Playoff and get hot at the right time en route to a title.

As perhaps the best coach without a title, Kelly will continue to be held to a different standard than most. He earned that right. He knew that would be on the table when he signed on the dotted line at LSU. A championship was always his pursuit.

Coming up short of that on the field is one thing, but doing so because of an outdated approach to talent acquisition is an easy way to lose in the court of public opinion.