"Fire Brian Kelly": Fans demand dismissal of LSU coach after huge loss to Billy Napier & team
Brian Kelly's LSU fell out of contention for the college football playoff last night, following a defeat to Billy Napier's Florida Gators. With that, the Tigers have had three straight defeats to SEC schools (Texas A&M, Alabama, and Florida). The inability to protect quarterback Garrett Nussmeier was key to the game's result, as he was sacked a season-high seven times.
Considering that the LSU Tigers entered the season with college football playoff hopes, given the expanded 12-team playoff field from this year onwards, it isn't surprising that fans are starting to consider this year a failure. Calls for the dismissal of Brian Kelly were commonplace.
"fire brian kelly," one commented.
"Fire Brian Kelly in the entire freaking coaching staff," another wrote.
According to some, the Tigers only had themselves to blame.
"LSU beat themselves," another added.
Fans were overall disappointed with the entire coaching staff.
"Terrible, I’ve always supported the coaching until they are fired, but at this point they all need to geaux. I just don’t see another win this season… Horrible play across the board," another added.
Someone called Brian Kelly an embarrassment for the history of LSU.
"Brian Kelly, Joe Sloan are not the answer. This is an embarrassment of LSU FOOTBALL AND BRAND," another said.
Some gave Kelly advice on what to do for the rest of the season:
"Coach Kelly, go ahead and let another QB play the rest of the year and get experience. Nobody cares about the Independence Bowl or whatever other bowl," another wrote.
In general, it seems that public opinion has turned against the coaching staff led by Brian Kelly.
Billy Napier's Florida defense managed to stop Brian Kelly's LSU Tigers
The key to the Florida Gators' victory was their ability to limit the LSU Tigers to a couple of field goals in the second half of the game. Especially important was that after entering the fourth quarter tied 13-13, the last three possessions by Brian Kelly's LSU ended on a fumble, a field goal and a turnover on downs. Their two possessions in the third quarter also ended on a field goal and a fumble.
It's interesting that after being saved from their first fumble, with the Gators being immediately forced to punt after only one set of downs, the LSU Tigers offense gave up another fumble. Those are the kinds of errors a college football playoff-hopeful school cannot afford to make.
The school's offensive output wasn't even that bad, with signal-caller Garrett Nussmeier registering 260 passing yards with one touchdown. They also put together 130 rushing yards, but in another important mistake, weren't able to turn those into any touchdowns.