Sports
Why is Brian Kelly so ‘angry’? Because LSU’s Week 1 woes are now an existential crisis
![Why is Brian Kelly so ‘angry’? Because LSU’s Week 1 woes are now an existential crisis Why is Brian Kelly so ‘angry’? Because LSU’s Week 1 woes are now an existential crisis](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/09/02015236/GettyImages-2169817432-scaled-e1725256402332.jpg)
LAS VEGAS — For most coaches, Week 1 is about shaking off the rust, seeing some young guys get their first game reps and hopefully taking care of business to start 1-0.
For LSU’s Brian Kelly, on the other hand, Week 1 has become an annual existential crisis.
Late Sunday night at Allegiant Stadium, Kelly fielded questions from the media following his third consecutive season-opening neutral-site loss, this one a last-second 27-20 heartbreaker to No. 23 USC. It did not take long for him to let the assembled room know how angry he was with the result.
In fact, his very first words were, “This is the first time since I’ve been here (at LSU) that I’m angry at my football team.” He went on to cite a pair of costly late-game unsportsmanlike penalties by his players and the Tigers’ inability to close out the game.
A few minutes later while answering a follow-up question, Kelly pounded his first on the table, shocking a few sleepy-eyed sportswriters back to peak alertness as his voice rose abruptly.
“We’re sitting here AGAIN, talking about the same things, about not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put ’em away,” Kelly said. “What we’re doing on the sideline is feeling like the game is over. And I’m so angry about it, that I’ve got to do something about it. I’m not doing a good enough job as a coach. I’ve got to coach them better, because it’s unacceptable for us not to have found a way to win this football game.
“It’s ridiculous.”
To repeat: This was after the first game of the season.
Kelly’s team actually played fairly well Sunday night. This was not the disastrous 2022 Florida State game in New Orleans, Kelly’s LSU debut, when the Tigers committed every special teams snafu imaginable and lost 24-23 on a blocked extra point. Nor was this the ugly 2023 rematch with FSU in Orlando, when the Noles ran away in the second half of a 45-24 rout.
This was a down-to-the-wire barnburner between two teams trying to find themselves after losing their respective Heisman-winning quarterbacks (USC’s Caleb Williams and LSU’s Jayden Daniels). Lincoln Riley’s Trojans showed off a much-improved defense, one that actually wraps up ball carriers and limits explosive plays. Kelly’s defense, itself a trainwreck for most of last season, allowed a not-great 7.5 yards per play but was improved enough for the Tigers to hold a 17-13 lead late into the fourth quarter.
Then the dam broke.
After stopping a USC fourth down in LSU territory with 8:38 left, LSU safety Major Burns committed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that backed up the Tigers to their own 21. Kelly could be seen having a long talk with Burns on the sideline afterward. LSU went three-and-out and punted back to USC. Three plays later, Trojans quarterback Miller Moss threw a beautiful 28-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Kobi Lane to put USC up 20-17 with 5:44 left.
Tigers quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, who finished 29 of 38 for 304 yards, led his team from its own 20 to the USC 14 but missed a wide-open Aaron Anderson for what would have been at least another first down. The Tigers settled for a game-tying 31-yard field goal with 1:47 left.
You likely know how things ended.
USC looked content to settle for a game-winning field goal try until Moss found receiver Kyron Hudson for a spectacular 20-yard catch down the sideline, which, coupled with a targeting call on LSU’s Jardin Gilbert, took the Trojans down to the LSU 13 with 18 seconds left.
At which point USC tailback Woody Marks took a handoff up the middle for the winning score, and Kelly got that familiar scrunched-up expression on his face that always seems like half-bewilderment, half-resignation.
yearly tweet pic.twitter.com/5qCSxnHTAa
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 2, 2024
“It’s clear that when we get up in a game, we do not know how to handle ourselves,” Kelly said afterward. “You’ve got to have that killer instinct in this game. You’ve got to put teams away. We had an opportunity to put this team away, and we got complacent.”
Normally in these moments, the coach reminds us it’s a long season ahead, they’ve got plenty of time to fix their issues, etc., etc. Having heard none of that from Kelly, I feel compelled to personally remind LSU’s coach: Hey man, it’s a long season ahead. You’ve got plenty of time to fix these issues. Don’t freak out too much.
Unfortunately, he already did.
“To be the kind of football team I want, we have to eliminate the foolish mistakes,” he said. “We have to have a mindset of, when we have an opponent down, have that killer instinct. And we have to play off each other much better.”
Did we mention his team has only played one game?
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Kelly made an interesting comment while lamenting that the Tigers did not play complementary football. He said, “We put way too much pressure on our defense to be something that they’re not ready to be. They battled, but we have warts, and they’re not going away overnight.”
It brought back memories of Kelly’s surprisingly candid comments after the spring transfer portal closed without LSU adding any defensive tackles as many expected. “We’re not in the market of buying players,” Kelly told WAFB-TV, which sounded to some like a preemptive excuse if the Tigers’ defense, which finished 109th in the FBS last season, wasn’t markedly better.
His remarks Sunday night felt as if he was pleasantly surprised said defense held a Lincoln Riley offense, with Moss and ridiculous receivers Zachariah Branch, Hudson and Lane, to “only” three touchdowns, yet that still wasn’t enough.
“I thought our defense took a step forward from last year,” he said. “But we have to help them out as well. We can’t be three-and-out and then put them back on the field.”
This moment occurred in 2024, but it could have just as easily been 2014, or almost any year since. Kelly has won at least 10 games in each of the past seven seasons as head coach (five with the Irish, two with LSU), yet these big-game letdowns feel less like exceptions and more like the norm.
Notre Dame fans mostly made peace with it because the Irish hadn’t enjoyed even that level of success in decades. LSU, on the other hand, has seen its past three coaches win national championships (and it still fired the past two). Tigers fans, which took over Las Vegas only to be let down again, will not exhibit similar patience if this continues.
No fist-pounding or tough words will reassure them.
(Photo: Candice Ward / Getty Images)
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Sports
Transgender runner fails to qualify for women's 400-meter final at 2024 Paralympic Games
![Transgender runner fails to qualify for women's 400-meter final at 2024 Paralympic Games Transgender runner fails to qualify for women's 400-meter final at 2024 Paralympic Games](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/pertrillo.jpg)
Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo, who became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympic Games, will not race for a medal in the women’s T12 400-meter sprint after a third place finish in Monday’s semifinal.
The 50-year-old athlete, who began transitioning in 2019, qualified for the semifinal with a time of 58.35 in the first round heat.
Italy’s Valentina Petrillo prepares to compete in the women’s 400m T12 round 1, at the Stade de France Stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Jackson Ranger)
Petrillo finished second in the heat without a guide.
Petrillo would advance to the semifinal, finishing with a personal best of 57.58. But it wasn’t enough to qualify for Tuesday’s final. The Italian finished third behind Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani of Iran and Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez of Venezuela.
Petrillo was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition known as Stargardt disease as a teenager. While competing as a male, Petrillo won 11 national titles in the men’s T12 category between 2015 and 2018 before eventually transitioning.
![Valentina Petrillo races](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/Valentina-Petrillo3.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Italy’s Valentina Petrillo competes in the women’s 400m T12 round 1, at the Stade de France stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Jackson Ranger)
MARTINA NAVRATILOVA RIPS ITALIAN SPRINTER SET TO BECOME FIRST TRANSGENDER WOMAN TO COMPETE AT PARALYMPICS
“I began transitioning in 2019 and in 2020 I realized my dream, which was to race in the female category, to do the sport that I had always loved doing,” Petrillo told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I got to 50 before it came true … we all have the right to a second choice of life, a second chance.”
While World Athletics banned trans athletes from competing in women’s events if they transitioned after puberty last year, World Para Athletics still allows transgender athletes to participate as long as they declare that their gender identity for sporting purposes is female and provide evidence that their testosterone levels have been below 10 nanomoles per liter of blood for at least 12 months prior to their first competition.
![Valentina Petrillo Paris](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/Valentina-Petrillo.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Italy’s Valentina Petrillo reacts as she prepares to compete in the women’s 400m T12 round 1, at the Stade de France Stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Jackson Ranger)
Petrillo could still win and Olympic medal in the women’s T12 200-meter. Round 1 begins Friday and the final is slated for Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Sports
Photos: USC's thrilling win over LSU in Las Vegas
![Photos: USC's thrilling win over LSU in Las Vegas Photos: USC's thrilling win over LSU in Las Vegas](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3b0a733/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5450x2861+0+386/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F72%2Fac%2Fcb42bfb24885b0238a9b338b8a04%2F1473245-sp-0901-usc-lsu-rcg-8191.jpg)
LSU Tigers defensive tackle Jay’viar Suggs (31) and USC Trojans offensive lineman Elijah Paige (72) reach for a muffed lateral during second-half action in the Modelo Vegas Kickoff Classic at Allegiant Stadium. Paige recovered the fumble.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Sports
Abilene Christian involved in bus accident after loss to Texas Tech, 3 team members injured
![Abilene Christian involved in bus accident after loss to Texas Tech, 3 team members injured Abilene Christian involved in bus accident after loss to Texas Tech, 3 team members injured](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/09/01130220/GettyImages-2169671981-scaled.jpg)
A bus accident involving the Abilene Christian football team after its game against Texas Tech on Saturday left four people injured, including three team members, the university announced Sunday.
The accident occurred at 11:45 p.m. just off Texas Tech’s campus as the team began traveling back to Abilene, located about an hour from Lubbock. A 19-year-old man ignored traffic signals and crashed into the bus, according to KTAB in Lubbock.
“Four individuals received minor injuries — one student-athlete, two coaches and the bus driver,” the school said in a statement. All four were transported to University Medical Center in Lubbock. “We’re grateful to Texas Tech director of athletics Kirby Hocutt, their team physician Dr. Michael Phy and all of the first responders for their assistance and care.”
KTAB reported the 19-year-old, Parker Young, was arrested for driving while intoxicated as a result. A search of the Lubbock County jail showed Young was in custody.
Texas Tech won 52-51, stopping an ACU 2-point conversion attempt in overtime.
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