LSU FOOTBALL 09/23 Brian Kelly Media Availability

[Luke Hubbard]

• Said you lose players all the time, but you always feel terrible for them individually. It's a tough loss for them, but they're confident someone will step up in his place.
• Liked the energy and the way they started against UCLA offensively. Didn't like the mental mistakes defensively, but liked how his team responded in the second half and held them to 64 yards.
• Over the last two games, LSU has allowed 16 points in the second half while scoring 58. Wants to see his team be able to dominate opponents for four quarters instead of two.
• Garrett Nussmeier was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week and Bradyn Swinson was co-SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week. Says Swinson's consistency the last two weeks has really helped them defensively. Another positive from Saturday was their offensive line not allowing a sack for the third time in four games this season.
• Thinks Zavion Thomas has been outstanding on special teams and thinks he deserves some love.
• Calls South Alabama a really good team with a high powered offense. They have 9 former SEC players on their roster. They've scored 87 and 48 in their last two games.
• Thinks the defensive line has been a strength for them this year, and that's due to Kevin Peoples and Bo Davis's work with their linemen. Also credits the young guys like Ahmad Breaux, Gabe Reliford, Dashawn Womack and others for their productiveness.
• If they want to stay in their Buffalo package without Perkins, Whit Weeks would move to SAM, Greg Penn III to WILL and West Weeks to MIKE. Freshman Xavier Atkins would be the next man up. If they want to go to dime, we'd see the STAR position comeback.
• Says you can't accept the big play runs at any level. They had those mistakes against SC but stopped them this week. The big plays they gave up were mental mistakes. They missed running backs out the backfield and made other mental, but correctable, mistakes.
• Said Harold Perkins was gifted enough to play run defense and also split out and cover someone in the slot. That allowed them to play with 3 LBs on the field when they wanted to. Now, with him out, they'll have to switch between dime and their buffalo package based on the personnel on the field. Doesn't think they have another LB who can cover in the slot well enough to stay in buffalo all the time.
• Bradyn Swinson has a desire to be the best player he can and wants to play on Sunday's, so he and Coach Peoples connected over the offseason and went to work, and we're seeing the benefits.
• Says this is way too soon for Harold Perkins to have made a decision on whether he'll enter the NFL Draft this year or not.
• Zy Alexander is questionable as of today, but that could change. Still feels they have some good options at corner and Javien Toviano could flip back there like he did last year.
• Likes what Zavion Thomas is doing and thinks he brings a lot of versatility to the offense and special teams. Says they missed a block on the counter they gave to him, and if they made it, he probably would've had two touchdowns this past weekend.
• They thought teams would be backing off and playing coverage more often by this point in the season, but that's just not happening, so they're still throwing the ball a lot and letting Nussmeier use his arm. Says they're taking some of their typical rushing periods in practice and turning them into blocking periods for the RBs because of how often they're being blitzed.
• Happy for Kyle Parker to get that big touchdown catch after suffering a few injuries this offseason/season. Jokes that his dance was horrible, so they'll work on that with him.