Brian Kelly and his LSU Tigers faced their biggest test of the season with Tennessee coming to Death Valley and the coach was getting torched early on.
There has been no shortage of humorous ire directed at Brian Kelly since he took over the LSU football program this offseason, whether it was his offseason dancing or attempt at a southern accent or his Tigers getting beaten by Florida State and digging a huge hole early against Auburn last week.
So the trolls were undoubtedly ready to pounce on Saturday as LSU welcomed the No. 8-ranked Tennessee Volunteers to Death Valley for a huge SEC matchup. And their jobs were made easier when Kelly started the game with an awful onside kick and then fell into a 20-0 hole early in the second quarter thanks in large part to two failed fourth-down conversion attempts.
It was most definitely not a coaching clinic from Kelly in any capacity and fans of college football on social media took immediate notice and did anything but let the head coach off of the hook.
Brian Kelly gets torched for LSU’s bad start vs Tennessee: Best memes and tweets
College football Twitter basically became a Brian Kelly roast session that was absolutely merciless on him.
Brian Kelly team facing a top ten team? pic.twitter.com/ni9bg91ruS
— Brendan (@verypiratey) October 8, 2022
Brian Kelly predicting the final result of today’s game before entering the stadium: https://t.co/lj3yBbDXA7
— Joey Blackwell (@_JoeyBlackwell) October 8, 2022
#LSU special teams continue to be a disaster.
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) October 8, 2022
Seconds before kickoff, Brian Kelly had to scream at Jack Bech to switch to the other side. Then he rushedly went to grab a short kickoff and muffed it back to Tennessee. Volunteer ball.
Brian Kelly 2 years from now… #TENNvsLSU pic.twitter.com/5oZHalc5bM
— Dirt Knox (@dirt_knox) October 8, 2022
Brian Kelly pic.twitter.com/nWRRyT301p
— John Monroe (@MinisterofD) October 8, 2022
We typically don't get many assistant changes during the season but Brian Kelly might be having a long talk with Brian Polian tomorrow.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) October 8, 2022
LSU does special teams like Brian Kelly does southern accents
— Will Boling (@will_boling) October 8, 2022
BRIAN KELLY WENT FOR IT ON HIS OWN 45 AND CAME UP SHORT! pic.twitter.com/KKvudGPsUk
— @idthemike@mastodon.social (@IDtheMIKE) October 8, 2022
https://twitter.com/lilpipecleaner/status/1578789562721370114
Brian Kelly spends more time looking at the grass than the actual game.
— kenny (@Kony_Stark_) October 8, 2022
Brian Kelly turning purple as he curses out his QB is one of the traditions which makes college football so special. #TENNvsLSU
— Brian Daly (@briandalynj) October 8, 2022
In reality, though, this is what Notre Dame fans had a problem with Kelly for. The head coach developed an uncanny propensity to both overthink and galaxy brain things (the onside kick being a perfect example) and also for having his teams fail to show up to the best of their ability in the biggest games.
Though the 20-0 deficit arose early in the second quarter, the way Kelly’s Tigers were playing against Tennessee under his direction certainly seemed to indicate that we were in for another one of those unfortunately predictable performances.
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