Brian Kelly, Mike Denbrock Outline Goals for LSU's Offensive Identity

LSU is in the early stages of pretty much everything with its football program. After hitting the ground running with the sole focus of putting a recruiting class together, the coaching staff has spent the better part of the last month transitioning to a new phase.

This new phase first and foremost is about building relationships with both new and returning players on this team before the spring. Learning more about them, their play styles and personality will in turn help decipher the other important aspect currently being tended to, developing play books and identity to what this offense and defense will look like.

Offensively, that means designing a well versed scheme that plays not to the strength of one individual coordinator but to what the collective of what LSU hopes to be.

"To say we're gonna run my offense would be very arrogant considering the talent we have in this room," offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. "We're gonna run an offense that's LSU's offense and we're in the process as a staff we get the verbiage the way we want it and getting those details ironed out.

"What's been impressive to me about our group of players in particular is they're not afraid to put their heads down and grind. That's what it's gonna take to get us back to where we need to be."

This will be an offense very much that plays to the strengths of its players, something that every coach and player iterate but not all can capitalize on. For Denbrock, Kelly and this offensive staff, this is a group that will want to be physically tough, run the football effectively and create mismatches with diverse looks in the passing game that make for efficient throws.

While this is an offense that is a work in progress one of the points Kelly wanted to get across almost immediately was the importance of divvying up the responsibilities. While he does have experience in play calling, Kelly will leave the majority of it up to Denbrock and the offensive staff so he can in turn focus on big picture situations and most importantly, building strong relationships with the players.

"Delegating those responsibilities was not very difficult for me because it's so important I spend more time with the players," Kelly said. "If you're in meeting rooms and tied up most of the day, it's very difficult to build the relationships you want with your team. This is not a detachment from anything, I'll still be in offensive meetings but there's a difference between full detachment and still as the head coach be responsible for end of game situations. I'll be involved in those things."

Denbrock said the packages will be 10, 11, 12 and even 14 personnel at times, which are just a number of different ways the players can be spread out across the field. Right now this offensive staff is putting together playbooks and ironing out the terminology before spring practice, which starts on March 24.

It's very rare that a coach doesn't talk about the "multiple" looks offensively the team will aspire to. But finding that balance of confusing the defense while not confusing the players that are running the different plays on offense is something LSU struggled with the last two seasons. Part of the reason Denbrock was brought in was because of his background in having highly efficient offensive teams.

"We're a personnel driven offense at its core which means it's multiple enough we can do what we need to do with whichever personnel group," Denbrock said. "It's going to be multiple in what we present to the defense. Can't run the same plays out of the same looks against the defenses we're gonna play against."

The next several weeks before the start of spring camp on March 24 will continue to revolve around getting on the same page as a staff with the play book but also continuing to build relationships. Being in a good place relationship wise will only help the players pick up what's being asked that much more.

With so much of this spring going to be about evaluating player roles and best potential spots to be successful, picking up on the offense and defensive schemes quickly will go a long way into figuring out which players execute at the highest level.

"Getting to dig into these players, know more about them, their background," Denbrock said. "As much as we can learn about them, the closer we can build our relationship and trust level is very important. We are eight hours a day playbook oriented, learning how to condense and make sure we're speaking the same language when we get in front of the players."

"As an offensive staff, we're gonna do everything in our power from sun up to sun down to make sure Saturday nights in Baton Rouge, we light this stadium up with the excitement the LSU fans expect," Denbrock said.