LSU Roster turnover (2023-2024)

[LSUDad]

Ok, no one entered the portal since the Spring Game, it’s now closed. The numbers are around 78 Scholarship players on the roster. Kelly will try to get close or hit the 85 limit. 

[LSUDad]

 

[LSUDad]

 

[Fishhead]

On 5/4/2023 at 9:07 PM, LSUDad said:

Ok, no one entered the portal since the Spring Game, it’s now closed. The numbers are around 78 Scholarship players on the roster. Kelly will try to get close or hit the 85 limit. 

Amazing turn around in a little over one year

[Nutriaitch]

9 hours ago, Fishhead said:

Amazing turn around in a little over one year

funny how well things go when an actual adult is in charge.

[houtiger]

3 hours ago, Nutriaitch said:

funny how well things go when an actual adult is in charge.

Kelly certainly has it all over the previous 2 coaches in the smarts dept.  Excluding Saban, how far back do you have to go to find a coach in the same league as Kelly in LSU football?  Arnsbarger in the late 80's?

I like Kelly's press conference a lot more than Saban's at LSU.  Nick moved his mouth, but didn't reveal very much.  Kelly seems to reveal more insight, like he's not afraid to reveal what he's thinking, in a general sense.  He obviously avoids giving away specific info that would help his opponent, but he actually answers questions intelligently.  Woodward has made excellent hires.  Mulkey speaks highly of Woodward.  Kelly doesn't mention Woodward, except when he came here he said it was because they were "aligned".

[Nutriaitch]

55 minutes ago, houtiger said:

Kelly certainly has it all over the previous 2 coaches in the smarts dept.  Excluding Saban, how far back do you have to go to find a coach in the same league as Kelly in LSU football?  Arnsbarger in the late 80's?

I like Kelly's press conference a lot more than Saban's at LSU.  Nick moved his mouth, but didn't reveal very much.  Kelly seems to reveal more insight, like he's not afraid to reveal what he's thinking, in a general sense.  He obviously avoids giving away specific info that would help his opponent, but he actually answers questions intelligently.  Woodward has made excellent hires.  Mulkey speaks highly of Woodward.  Kelly doesn't mention Woodward, except when he came here he said it was because they were "aligned".

as a fan, I agree and think Kelly is a pretty good mix.

Saban type coaches intentionally just straight up don't tell you anything. And tell you they won't tell you anything.

Ed just spit out whatever came into his feeble little mind. Didn't matter if it was right, wrong, truth, lie, completely made up didley-poo or top secret government info.  

Then you have guys like Les that literally babbled incoherently for 45 minutes and nobody understands a word that he says.
or cut from the higher quality version of the same cloth
Mike leach who would go off on an extremely intelligent and well thought out dissertation on a completely unrelated topic. Giving you more information than you will ever need. Just not about his team.

 

Kelly falls somewhere in the middle. Gives you enough info to whet your appetite. But not anything crucial or sensitive in any way.

[LSUDad]

When you look at the preseason All-SEC teams, you see LSU players littered throughout. Especially on the first team, where the Tigers have six selections — three on each side. That’s not something anyone would have guessed Brian Kelly would be able to do given the roster he inherited in 2022.

Fortunately for those in Baton Rouge, Kelly has been able to add talent over the past two offseasons. Not just through recruiting but also via the NCAA transfer portal. 

“Look, six is a huge number including three on each side of the ball,” Shea Dixon of On3’s The Bengal Tiger said when joining the On3 Roundtable. “They had a lot of guys scattered throughout the second and third-team. So, it speaks to the talent… Just on the first team alone, you see Brian Kelly has had a big hand in either playing true freshman or going and getting transfers who end up having a big impact on the team.”
 

Sure, Malik Nabers and Maason Smith were part of the program when Kelly arrived. Nabers wound up being LSU’s leading receiver while Smith suffered an injury against Florida State in the season opener. Both were brought in by Ed Orgeron and expected to be huge contributors.

But four other first-team members have been developed into stars by the head coach. None better than two guys heading into their sophomore season after getting onto the field early as freshmen and making an impact.

“When you look at the first team alone, a lot of it has Brian Kelly’s fingerprints on it,” Dixon said. “Will Campbell, who they put as the starting left tackle as a true freshman. Harold Perkinswas a true freshman breakout player. Guys like that were really brought along by Brian Kelly and this staff in Year One.”

How Kelly really has LSU moving though is through the portal. Not only was he able to acquire talent to help in 2022 but they return for another season. When you have guys potentially skipping out on the NFL, only to come back and be named preseason All-SEC first-team, it’s a great recruiting effort.

“Then you look at some of the headliners,” Dixon began. “Jayden Daniels, the quarterback. He was a transfer that they went and got. Mekhi Wingo as one of the top defensive lineman in the SEC. He was a transfer that they went and got.”

Even before looking at the results and last year’s SEC West title, Kelly has done a great job turning the roster around. It’s easy to forget where it sat after the 2021 season.

“It speaks to the pulse of the roster, where he has it at, where they needed to fill holes,” Dixon said. “And now we see LSU’s roster continue to get better and better. Remember, it wasn’t long ago they had 38 scholarship players on roster.”