Brian Kelly entered the 2024 college football season hoping to do something he hadn't done in his first two years at LSU: win the team's season opener.
The Tigers failed to achieve that goal in a tightly contested 27-20 loss to 23rd-ranked USC.
LSU played well despite the defeat. The Tigers recorded 421 yards of offense and won the time-of-possession battle by six minutes. Jayden Daniels' replacement, Garrett Nussmeier, quarterbacked the offense competently most of the evening, completing 29-of-38 passes for 304 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception that came with just seconds remaining in the contest.
But in the final quarter, USC outscored LSU 14-3 as the Tigers hurt themselves with key penalties. That included an offside call against Major Burns that led to the Trojans' first touchdown and a targeting call against Jardin Gilbert that put USC in range for the game-winning score.
LSU committed 10 total penalties for 99 yards throughout the game. That was one of the factors that led Kelly to boil over after the defeat.
BENDER: How Week 1 shakes up College Football Playoff bracketology
Brian Kelly press conference
Kelly didn't mince words when discussing LSU's struggles in its matchup against USC. He acknowledged he is growing tired of consistently getting close to big wins with the program but falling just short.
"We had some guys play their butts off tonight and we're sitting here again, we're sitting here again talking about the same things!" Kelly said before hitting the press conference table hard enough to make his water bottle pop an inch into the air. "About not finishing when you have an opponent in a position to put them away. But what we're doing on the sideline is feeling like the game is over."
Kelly blamed himself for the loss and vowed to be better moving forward. He particularly lamented the Tigers' inability to develop a "killer instinct" under his watch.
"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," Kelly said, per ESPN. "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. It's crazy."
To Kelly's point, the Tigers forced a key turnover on downs with 8:38 remaining in the game when they had a 17-13 lead. USC had just one timeout remaining, so if LSU could get a few first downs, they could bleed the clock and make life difficult for the Trojans.
MORE: Meet USC's Kyron Hudson, who made one-handed 'Catch of the Year' vs. LSU
Instead, Burns' penalty backed LSU up from its own 36-yard line to the 21. Then, the team went 3-and-out, notably failing to convert a third-and-1 on a John Emery run before punting it back to USC with 6:57 remaining in the contest.
Before the Emery third-and-1 run, LSU's win probability peaked at 80.6 percent, per ESPN. It gradually dropped from there before swinging in USC's favor after Miller Moss found Ja'Kobi Lane for a 28-yard touchdown.
Still, that swing highlighted what Kelly believes is one of his squad's biggest issues.
"Unfortunately, it's clear that, when we get up in a game, we do not know how to handle ourselves," Kelly said. "You've got to put teams away. We had an opportunity to put this team away. We get complacent, we make more mistakes when we're ahead instead of having a, you know, better focus and a steely eyed killer instinct. That's disappointing."
The good news for LSU is that it won't entirely be out of playoff contention even after the loss. The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams in 2024 will give the Tigers a chance to bounce back if they can go on a run.
The Tigers have won 10 games in each of Kelly's first two seasons, so the 62-year-old still has plenty of time to turn his team around. A Week 2 matchup against Nicholls will provide LSU a nice respite as it irons out some of the kinks that plagued it during its Week 1 loss.