LSU Coach Brian Kelly on the Trajectory of College Football
In this story:
There's little doubt we're in the infancy phase of a new age in college football. Instead of steering away from the impending changes that have come with name, image and likeness or the transfer portal, LSU coach Brian Kelly is doing his part to enact positive change for his players.
As the Tigers wrap up the final week of spring practice, there will of course be a bit of a dead period in terms of how much time coaches can spend with players through the course of summer. Of course the workout room and training will consume much of the players' focus.
But the other element these players will be able to spend time focusing on is the NIL side of the game and Kelly wants to make sure the players are set up for plenty of opportunities.
"The name, image and likeness is with us and so I've spent most of my time putting together the most comprehensive and attractive name, image and likeness program for our student athletes that can compete with anybody in the country," Kelly said. "Instead of worrying about it and what we can do to fix it, trying to operate within where we are and moving forward that way."
Of course the other half of the change that's swept through college athletics, particularly football the last handful of years, is the transfer portal. Like NIL, it's here to stay and LSU is using it to its fullest capacity under Kelly in year one. The Tigers have brought in 14 transfers to the 2022 class and with three spots available, the expectation is all three will go to addressing depth concerns via the portal.
Offensive line, cornerback and tight end are three positions the Tigers are looking at tightly but there is concern about how it'll be utilized with NIL such a prominent factor in college athletics. Kelly is of the opinion that the portal concerns will ultimately take care of themselves and that dead periods appear to be a common agreement to help avoid the year long distractions the portal can provide.
"I think the transfer portal will take care of itself. I think naturally people are starting to get a sense there needs to be some dead periods with the transfer portal, that it need not be open 365 days out of the year," Kelly said. "The SEC has already shown there could be a time where you close it down so it will eventually find itself to be reasonable.
"Some coaches are staying away from the transfer portal because they're worried about what the influence is in their program and I get that. I think if you're not doing a really good job of bringing the right people in to your program, the transfer portal can be deadly to your program. We had some strict parameters in terms of who we were bringing in and we're comfortable with it."
Kelly has publicly said how important it is to not overuse the portal and that 14 transfers won't be the norm with the LSU program going forward. With a new staff and new culture being established, it was necessary to bring in players who better fit the vision of the program but the goal is to recruit high schoolers who have those traits in recruiting to LSU.
"There might be some years I don't use it at all because we're using it all on freshmen. I don't have any declarative statements on that other than that I want to be able to use those to build the best program we have."
