LSU brutally roast Paul Finebaum by pulling out recepits after dominating Clemson in 17-10 win at Death Valley

Brian Kelly’s No. 10 LSU opened the 2025 season with a 17-10 win over No. 6 Clemson on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina. The Tigers shut out Clemson after halftime and held them to just 151 total yards in the second half.

Meanwhile, LSU’s social media team had some fun at the expense of ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, who predicted last week that Dabo Swinney's Clemson would win.

"I like Clemson to win this game, and it has to do with the offensive line of LSU," Finebaum said on ESPN's "Get Up". "Life is going to become very miserable quickly for Brian Kelly. The fans down there are going to go crazy with a loss—another opening loss, which would be every year Brian Kelly has been there."

Instead, Kelly enjoyed his first 1-0 start at LSU, and the program’s X account fired back at Finebaum with a playful jab:

"See you next week PAWLLL."

According to USA TODAY’s latest review, Kelly entered the 2025 season with the eighth-highest salary in college football at $9.9 million and justified the investment with his season-opening win. As of Dec. 1, 2024, his buyout stood at $61.7 million.

Brian Kelly praises LSU’s grit after big win over Clemson

In Saturday’s game, Clemson struck first, taking a 10-3 lead into halftime, but LSU dominated the third quarter, with Garrett Nussmeier connecting with Trey’Dez Green on an eight-yard touchdown.

Nussmeier finished the game completing 28 of 38 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown, helping LSU secure a decisive win.

However, the standout story was LSU’s defense, which held Clemson’s potent offense to just 261 total yards. After finishing 14th in the Southeastern Conference in scoring defense in 2024, LSU had made significant offseason investments on that side of the ball, which worked out.

Brian Kelly couldn’t hide his pride in his team.

"You've got to have some grit and you've got to have character, and these kids listened to all the doubters and said, 'You know what? It doesn't matter,'" Kelly said (via ESPN)

LSU now turns its attention to a home game against Louisiana Tech on Sept. 6.

About the author

Maliha is a High School Sports news and listicles writer at Sportskeeda. A post graduate in Management Information Systems, it was her love for writing and sports which led her down the path of sports content creation. An experienced NBA and NFL writer, she covered the two sports extensively at SportsZion and SportsKnot before joining SportsKeeda.

Maliha is a huge Baltimore Ravens fan and is in awe of quarterback Lamar Jackson's dual-threat abilities. She also admires Tom Brady and her all-time favorite coach is 3-time Super Bowl champion Andy Reid. She is a big advocate of high school sports and believes that elite athletes reach a top level owing to the discipline, hard work, team dynamics, resilience, adaptability and self-confidence learnt by playing sports in high schools. Aaron Rodgers leading the Green Bay Packers to victory on his debut against the Minnesota Vikings is one of her fondest NFL memories.

Maliha places a high emphasis on accuracy in her content. She does thorough research, always double checks facts, and only uses information from most relevant and credible sources for her articles. When not writing, she likes to read history and biographical books.

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