Brian Kelly didn’t just get LSU over the Week 1 hump … he showed why LSU is ready to compete for a title
Published:
It had to be Harold Perkins Jr. closing the door.
He was the former 5-star recruit who had been there for each one of Brian Kelly‘s season-opening losses at LSU. Sure, he wasn’t there when the Tigers stumbled their way out of the Playoff picture last year because he suffered a torn ACL in September, but it was Perkins who opted to return to LSU for a senior season playing the “STAR” position in Blake Baker’s defense. Would it work? And would he be the spark plug that LSU needed him to be in order for the Tigers to finally get back to having an elite defense?
With 1 game-closing Perkins pass rush, we might’ve gotten our answer to that and so much more.
Cade Klubnik couldn’t escape Perkins on a perfectly-timed pursuit of the Clemson quarterback, and LSU got the 4th-down stop it needed to close out a 17-10 victory on the road. Five consecutive season-opening losses are now officially a thing of the past for LSU.
Finally, Kelly is 1-0. The “Death Valley Jr.” comments didn’t come back to bite him after all. A 17-10 win at No. 4 Clemson marked the first time in Kelly’s career that he won a true road game vs. an AP top-5 team. Clemson, on the other hand, has now lost its last 4 games to SEC teams since the start of 2024.
But Saturday night in Clemson wasn’t about the home team — it was about the arrival of LSU. Championship upside? It’s there.
It helps when you’ve got a defense that can stymie a preseason All-American quarterback
Baker’s unit had Klubnik and Co. perplexed for the majority of the night. The Clemson offenses mustered just 261 total yards, and it was held scoreless in the second half. LSU might’ve only finished the night with 2 sacks, but Klubnik was hurried 5 times, 2 of which came via Perkins, 2 from Whit Weeks and once by post-spring South Florida transfer Bernard Gooden. Florida State transfer Patrick Payton also applied pressure on Klubnik on a throw that sailed into the arms of Virginia Tech transfer Mansoor Delane.
Even when LSU inexplicably got what appeared to be a go-ahead touchdown from Kentucky transfer Barion Brown taken off the board — you know it’s bad when Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler don’t even entertain the possibility of an incompletion — the defense didn’t wilt.
There wasn’t a back-breaking defensive collapse like last year vs. USC that led to Kelly’s viral postgame podium slam in Las Vegas, nor was there an inexcusable special teams gaffe like there was in 2022 against Florida State. LSU’s only late-game stumble was Kelly literally stumbling on the sideline during a Clemson incompletion.
That’s about the only fun you could poke at Kelly on Saturday night.
You couldn’t hate on him for rolling out the squad that took the field at Clemson. Decorated transfer portal class or not, it was going to be defined by the exact situation it found itself in on Saturday night. It didn’t flinch in that hostile atmosphere even though everybody and their mother knew the streak that LSU was trying to overcome. Holly Rowe reported that Garrett Nussmeier was telling teammates at the start of a tied 4th quarter that LSU was about to win this game. Confidence wasn’t lacking for the visiting Tigers.
Nussmeier might not have stuffed the stat sheet — he finished with 230 yards and 1 touchdown pass on a goal-line fade to 6-7 Trey’Dez Green — but it was a poised performance by someone who splintered late in a couple of hostile atmospheres last year. On Saturday, he felt like he was in control. Whether that was checking to quarterback sneaks at the line of scrimmage to pick up first downs or delivering on-target, tight-window throws to Aaron Anderson, Nussmeier had the type of night that reminded you why he’s so coveted at the next level.
But that wasn’t what he set out to prove. He set out to prove that this LSU team is different than any we’ve seen in the 2020s. It’s got depth at key areas, it has a slippery play-making running back in Caden Durham and again, it might just have a defense that reminds us of the vintage LSU units.
There’s a long way to go to prove if that’s the case. LSU will be tested with a schedule that features 7 preseason AP Top 25 teams, though none of whom were ranked as high as No. 4 Clemson.
“This is a journey,” Kelly said on the postgame broadcast. “It wasn’t our destination.”
What is LSU’s destination? That question got a whole lot more interesting after claiming the battle for Death Valley. One thing is clear, though.
If you’re still doubting LSU’s ability to compete for a championship, you weren’t tuned in on Saturday night.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
