re: CBK grades for 3 years.

Operations/Culture: A-
There was a lot of negativity and discipline issues when Kelly was hired. One of the reasons O got fired was there was no discipline anywhere in the program. After 2019 and then the George Floyd issues, it's like he just sat back and let it all go to shite.

Recruiting: A
He made a mistake with with his recruiting coordinator in year 1 and then quickly corrected it by getting Frank. He came in late in 2022 and held the high school class mostly together with Campbell, Jones, Perkins, Taylor, etc. and then got the top transfer class that included several starters that impacted our team and a Heisman Trophy winner. In 2023 and 2024 we brought in the #5 and #7 classes which is what we need to have long term.

Offense: A
The offense has been humming pretty well since Kelly as been here. We might have some issues getting TDs lately, but over the course of the 3 years, offense has been really good. Being the #26 offense in the country still after our recent struggles, shows how good we have been, even in this year which feels like it's been down.

Defense: C-
House was a bad hire. Cooks and Steeples as your secondary coaches weren't what LSU needed from a recruiting standpoint and the hole left in the secondary from low recruiting is being felt last year and this year. Cain was a good DL coach, and I wish we could've seen what Lindsay could've done with the line, but missing that position coach hurt us badly. That said, the entire coaching staff is brand new and we are playing with maybe the weakest safety tandem and DL we've had in 30 years and they are much better than they were last year against a tougher schedule. Time will tell with the new staff how the improvement happens.


Overall I would give him a solid B. There are some things that he has done really well, but there are things that he hasn't done well yet that result in 3-4 loss seasons vs. 1-2 loss seasons. Year 1 we over achieved, Year 2 we over achieved on offense and under achieved on defense. This year, we are about where most people thought: step back on offense after losing 3 1st rounders, defense is better than last year and we are on pace to finish 8-4 like most people predicted.