Brian Kelly speaks to what went wrong defensively in 2nd half vs. Texas A&M

Brian Kelly joined Paul Finebaum on Monday to break down what went wrong in LSU’s loss to Texas A&M over the weekend.

The Tigers led 17-7 at the half, but were unable to adjust defensively when Texas A&M brought backup quarterback Marcel Reed into the game midway through the third quarter. LSU’s defensive issues were also compounded by numerous special teams mistakes and a flurry of turnovers by quarterback Garrett Nussmeier in the second half.

Kelly said that LSU failed to play complementary football in the second half.

“We’re now having to handle option responsibilities,” Kelly said. “We weren’t doing that. We were rushing the quarterback, we were in much more of a traditional defensive structure. And then on offense, we needed to control the football. We couldn’t go 3-and-out because clearly we were trying to make some adjustments on defense. And we didn’t play complementary football.”

Once Reed came into the game in place of Conner Weigman, it was all A&M from that point forward. The Aggies scored touchdowns on 4 consecutive drives and tacked on another field goal for good measure to close out a 38-23 win.

Kelly also took some accountability for not preparing LSU’s defense well enough for the possibility of Reed playing in this game.

“We’ve got to make some adjustments on the sideline,” Kelly said of LSU’s approach after Reed entered the game. “Some of the things are, ‘hey this is what we did last week against Arkansas. Athletic quarterback in [Taylen] Green, a guy that can run, remember these things that we did last week?’ Well we’re going to have to install these things and be ready for them. And obviously we didn’t execute those things from last week’s game plan into this game plan.

“And those are things that we have to look at as coaches. Did we spend enough time on the backup quarterback coming into this game? And certainly those are the things that you have to take a good, close look at and make sure that you don’t have these situations again.”

Here’s video of Kelly’s comments:

Brian Kelly breaks down what went wrong for LSU once the Aggies changed QBs in the 2nd Half Saturday pic.twitter.com/Zm0quPnpqA

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) October 28, 2024

LSU will be off in Week 10, but the Tigers will get another dual-threat quarterback when they take the field next. LSU is set to host Jalen Milroe and Alabama in Week 11.

Spenser Davis

Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.