Brunch with Brian: Missouri

Brian Kelly met with reporters following LSU’s 55-49 shootout defeat at the hands of Ole Miss.

All anyone wants to talk about is the LSU defense, specifically the status of defensive coordinator Matt House, aka our new public enemy No. 1.

“We take information,” Kelly said. “We want to listen to everybody that has experience. But there is one voice, there is one leader of our defense. I have the utmost confidence in (House’s) ability to run our defense, and he will run it effectively. We need to continue to coach and teach and develop our players. And we will do that.”

LSU gave up a program-worst 711 yards to Ole Miss. The Rebs passed AND ran for 300 yards which is just astounding the further removed from Saturday we get. But even despite the literal worst defensive game ever, Brian Kelly would not pin the blame entirely on House.

“The blame does not lie at th feet of one person,” Kelly said. “This is a collective situation where we’ve got to coach better and we’ve got to play better.”

Nobody wants to hear excuses, but Kelly offered up inexperience in the secondary as one reason the defense is struggling.

“The decision-making process is nothing that is a concern of mine,” Kelly said. “This is really about the teaching and the execution, and so that requires two parties, the coaches coaching and the players executing.”

“And so that’s not about leadership. That’s not about the message not resonating. I feel great about all those things and the leadership that we’re getting from my defensive coordinator.”