LSU lost to Vanderbilt this weekend.
Talk all you want about Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt’s historic season, or playoff implications. I don’t care. This is LSU - one of only three programs with three or more national championships since the BCS era.
And this isn’t Year 1 of a rebuild. I no longer care about 39 healthy scholarship players in a bowl game from 2021.
It’s 2025 and this is year 4 under the highest-paid and most high-profile coach in program history. Every piece of this team - from coordinators to position coaches to every scholarship player - has been hand-selected by Brian Kelly.
Don’t tell me the fans’ expectations are too high. If anything, the bar has been set embarrassingly low. When was the last time LSU fans said, “Just make the top 12 by the end of the year, please”? Yet somehow, that’s become the standard under Kelly - and LSU hasn’t even sniffed it in four seasons.
Vanderbilt, even in the NIL era, doesn’t have the resources to compete with LSU. That loss wasn’t just bad - it was unacceptable.
Sure, Alabama lost to Vanderbilt last year, but that’s a first-year coach figuring things out. By Year 2, that same coach handed Vanderbilt a 30-14 beatdown.
This is Year 4 for Brian Kelly.
No one expects a national championship every season. That standard is nearly impossible - it requires both greatness and luck. But at LSU, that’s the level the program has lived at for two decades. That bar wasn’t set by delusional fans; it was set by three consecutive head coaches who all won national titles - two of whom never won anything of note anywhere else.
But forget championships for a second. The conversation now is about something far more modest: making the top 12 once in four years.
Kelly is 8–11 in regular-season road games at LSU, and that includes some forgettable wins. If we ignore meaningless bowl games - like the ones where half the roster opts out - here’s what those eight road wins look like:
5–7 Auburn
6–7 Florida
7–6 Arkansas
5–7 Mississippi State
7–6 Arkansas (again)
3–4 Clemson
9–4 South Carolina (by sheer luck)
11–2 Missouri
And the losses?
5–7 Texas A&M
7–6 USC
8–5 Florida
And now, Vanderbilt - with viral clips to prove it.
Away from Death Valley, LSU has become a liability under Kelly. On the road, LSU looks less like a national power and more like Kentucky. And if you want to win a national championship, you have to beat great teams away from home - at least three times in a season.
Kelly’s record against ranked opponents? 5–10.
Redzone scroing ranked 92nd in the country. Rushing offense ranked 116th.
So what’s the excuse? LSU isn’t short on resources. The program has every tool a coach could dream of:
Time? Kelly was hired in Fall of 2021. Enough said.
Money? He’s had around $20 million to build his roster and over $2 million for coordinators.
Continuity? Both coordinators returned this season.
Talent? Louisiana remains a recruiting goldmine with no in-state competition.
Support? LSU boasts one of the most passionate fan bases, loudest stadiums, and richest traditions in college football.
There are no excuses left.
This loss to Vanderbilt could mark the beginning of the end. Rebounding from it will take a Herculean effort. Right now, LSU is staring down a 7–5 season with a roster built to win now - 16 of its starters are juniors or seniors likely headed to the NFL.
Worse yet, this era’s signature has been “one step forward, two steps back.”
In 2023, LSU wasted a historically good offense and a Heisman winner over the worst defense in program history. LSU finally straightens out the defense in 2025, and the offense now looks dreadful. This week alone we saw it - just when the offense starts clicking, the defense gets bullied.
LSU has yet to score 25 points or more against a Power 4 team this season. The only other team to accomplish that - North Carolina under a tumultuous start of the Bill Belichick era.
Fan belief in this coaching staff is at an all-time low.
Now the boosters face a choice: invest another $20 million into the roster - or start looking for a coach they believe can lead LSU back to where it belongs.
No more excuses. Everything Brian Kelly needs is already in place.
Run the table. Make the playoff. Prove everyone wrong.
It starts this weekend with No. 3 Texas A&M - and the best home-field advantage in America behind you.
I still believe this roster is good enough to do it.
But if it doesn’t happen?
Good luck rebuilding this staff - and this locker room - next year without any of the fans or donors believing in you.
