No one knew exactly what to expect in Brian Kelly’s first season.
After back-to-back disappointing campaigns and a lot of roster turnover, some national observers saw this as one of the worst teams in the SEC heading into 2022.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case. LSU won 10 games, upset Alabama, captured an SEC West title and enters the offseason with a ton of momentum as a result. Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt — who himself was frequently critical of LSU’s high placement in the College Football Playoff Rankings this season — conceded on his podcast that the Tigers are set to be a contender in 2023.
“Listen, Brian Kelly had something going,” Klatt said on his podcast. “Now, I’ve said this before, and I will continue to say it, the win over Alabama was more of the outlier for them this year than the norm. Than the mean. And you just look at their year and the games that they lost and some of the games that they played and that becomes painfully clear, but they were able to do it.
“So we know at least on the top end, that LSU has that gear. Okay, so they’ve got that club in their bag. Maybe LSU is primed for a bit of a run.”
Even though Klatt saw the Alabama win as more of an outlier than an arrival, it’s clear this team could build on that success in 2023 with stability at quarterback, a talented receiving corps and some new faces on defense that should replace some of the losses.
Only time will tell how high the ceiling is, but there will certainly be a lot more hype surrounding this team heading into the fall.
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