“Needs a great start”: CFB insider carves out plan for Brian Kelly to get off the hot seat in 2025

Brian Kelly’s LSU ended its 2024 season with a 9-4 record and 5-3 in Southeastern Conference play. While that might not be a disastrous year on paper, it doesn’t spare Kelly from the hot season in 2025, mostly because of the elite expectations many have on the program.

Kelly has delivered two 10-win seasons and a solid 2024 campaign. However, the bar is higher this year, according to college football insider Joel Klatt said on Monday.

“Expectations are sky high at LSU,” Klatt said (18:00), via "The Joel Klatt Show." “Every coach this century has won a national championship at LSU. It’s why Brian Kelly went to LSU.”

Klatt also carved out a plan for Kelly heading into the upcoming season.

“Kelly needs a great start to the season and that’s exactly where the pressure point is,” Klatt said. “It’s time. Week 1 at Clemson. The opener at Clemson is the moment for Brian Kelly. He can’t lose that game. And that’s an incredibly tough game.”

LSU will head to Death Valley on Aug. 30 to face Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers, which finished second in the ACC with a 10-4 record and 7-1 in conference play. Their campaign was powered by Cade Klubnik, who threw for 3,639 yards and 36 touchdowns. He also added 463 rushing yards and seven scores on the ground.

“He’s (Kelly) gotta win that game,” Klatt said. “If he doesn’t, look up at the rest of the schedule. The rest of the schedule becomes so much more daunting.

" … We all think that Clemson’s going to be the class of the ACC. If they’re in fact the ACC champion and you could notch a win in their building, what would that do to your playoff resume? It would be pretty good.”

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Chances of Brian Kelly’s LSU winning the 2025 season

Brian Kelly enters his fourth season at LSU with a 29-11 record since taking over the program in 2022. In his debut season, Kelly guided the Tigers to a 10-4 record, an SEC West title and a trip to the conference championship game. He followed that up with another strong showing in 2023, finishing 10-3, but falling short of a division title.

While LSU hasn’t broken through to the playoff under Kelly, there is still reason for optimism heading into 2025. ESPN’s FPI ranked the Tigers as the No. 12 team entering the season. The returning core will be led by Garrett Nussmeier, who threw for 4,052 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2024.

According to ESPN, LSU has the ninth-best odds to win the national championship in 2025 at +1800, just behind Clemson.

LSU's overall record against Clemson is 3-1-0. The Aug. 30 matchup will be the teams' first meeting after the national championship game in Jan. 2020, which LSU won. It capped a 15-0 season and ended Clemson's 29-game winning streak. While Dabo Swinney was with the team then, Kelly was not yet LSU’s coach.