Why LSU is next to reach 'elite' status in college football

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Tigers have been absent from the college football playoff picture for too long, why national analyst believes this year is the start of a major jump for the program.

Nobody would dispute that LSU's football program has been elite at times throughout the last 25 years.

The Tigers have put together some of the great individual seasons in college football history over the last two decades while at the same time, pumping some of the most recognizable faces to the NFL. This program has proven it can reach the top of the college football mountain.

Staying there has been a different story. Alabama is in a class of its own but Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State have been a few of the storied teams who have had multiple years of sustained success and that's a place LSU is attempting to establish under Brian Kelly.

In a recent episode of Late Kick with Josh Pate, Pate gave his thoughts on why LSU is the next program that he believes propels itself into that next level.

"I think LSU is my easy No. 1 choice for someone who's not there because they're almost there already. They are a very good recruiter, a very good portal team, they've made really good organizational moves. I still believe in Brian Kelly, he's gonna have a lot of that, I wouldn't say Ryan Day energy because Ryan Day hasn't been around as long as Brian Kelly. He's still not won the big one, not won a national championship but I still believe he can," Pate said.

"Plus it's LSU. Every coach that's capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time has won a national championship down there since the turn of the millennium. That's really true, everyone's done it which brings us to the fact that purple and gold is a very strong brand. It's LSU. LSU is a machine, you just have to steer it the right way, I think Brian Kelly can do that."

There's a case to be made that the brand of LSU is in that elite status already as one of the most recognizable in all of college sports. But now it's on this football program to back it up with multiple years of sustained success. In other words, becoming a perennial playoff team that's competing for championships year in and year out is the ultimate goal.

It's been since 2019 that LSU was in that position and that's far too long considering the ceiling that it's set since the turn of the century. This roster that's been established in 2025 along with a highly respected coaching staff gives the purple and gold its best shot at competing at the highest level.

Kelly has recruited another top-10 class to Baton Rouge and signed the No. 1 transfer portal haul to help round out a roster that returns star level players like Garrett Nussmeier, Caden Durham, Whit Weeks and Harold Perkins.

Quality freshman talent on the o-line, in the secondary and on the defensive line will compete with many veterans with Power 4 experience at the same positions to round out a group that, on paper, is generating plenty of offseason buzz on a national scale.

How the staff puts together the personnel it has, incorporating the 16 transfers and 23 freshmen onto the roster, begins on March 8 when spring practice begins. More additions could be on the way in the spring portal window as well, though the purple and gold have put themselves in a position where they can be much more selective in those efforts.

"I think we go into this next portal window with no expectations of we need to get somebody out of the spring portal. It would have to be something that was a right fit for us," Kelly said.

Progress in year four of this current regime is at minimum getting into the playoff and ideally being one of, if not the final team standing. That's a high bar to clear but it comes with the territory of pouring the kind of resources the Tigers did this offseason.

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