Brian Kelly is building something special at LSU

I know there are a lot of people out there who doubt Brian Kelly's process at LSU, but Kelly is building a winning culture in Baton Rouge. When you really look into the details of the past two seasons, you start to see that despite not making it to the college football playoffs yet, this program is ascending.

For starters, Kelly has LSU on track to win 10 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2018-2019. In his first season, he completely rebuilt the roster, bringing in transfers such as Jayden Daniels, Mekhi Wingo, Makhi Garner and Greg Brooks while getting the most out of freshman such as Harold Perkins, Will Campbell, Emery Jones and Mason Taylor. With that squad, he managed to beat Nick Saban's Alabama squad in Death Valley and go on to win the SEC West.

In his second season, he had to dip back into the portal to completely rebuild the defense, and despite having one of the worst unit's in college football, this team still went 9-3 and produced a Heisman Trophy winner. They now have a chance to beat Wisconsin in the ReliaQuest Bowl to reach the 10-win mark once again.

That's enough to convince some people that LSU is getting back to their winning ways, but in case you weren't convinced, here's a lot of other reasons.

The first of which is the 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes. Wednesday was national signing day for the 2024 class, and while schools like Florida and USC had commits flipping last second, LSU got all 27 of their recruits to sign. A few years ago, that wouldn't really mean too much, but in today's college football world, getting and keeping commitments through signing day is a sign that you're doing something right.

In 2025, Kelly has already gained a commitment from Dakorien Moore, Rival's No. 4 ranked player in the class. The Tigers are also the favorites to land Harlem Berry, the No. 3 running back and No. 25 player in the 2025 class and Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 quarterback and No. 2 player in the class. On top of that, they have commitments from four of Louisiana's best in Keylan Moses, TaRon Francis, Brett Bordelon and John David LaFleur.

Kelly has been hot on the recruiting trail and has all but locked down the state of Louisiana. If he can continue to recruit in-state at a high level while bringing in a handful of high profile recruits from out of state, he'll have this program in a good place for a long time.

Brian Kelly also has nearly his entire roster playing in their bowl game on New Years Day. Outside of Jayden Daniels and the transfers, everyone who was with the team for the regular season finale against Texas A&M is expected to suit up for the Tigers postseason game. Even guys like Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., Maason Smith, Mekhi Wingo and many others who could potentially enter their name into the 2024 NFL Draft are expected to play. That is unheard of in today's college football world, but Kelly has these guys thirsty to play one more game in the purple and gold.

If that still wasn't enough to sway you, Kelly is also expecting a lot of their draft eligible players to stay with the team for another season. Even though guys like Nabers and Thomas are almost locks to go to the NFL due to being potential first round draft picks, a lot of the other guys with one-year of eligibility remaining want to return for their final season. So far, Kyren Lacy and Greg Penn III have announced their return and we should also expect to see one or both of Wingo and Smith returning. We've also heard Josh Williams express interest in staying for his final season, and there will likely be many more players returning for their senior season.

Even though some people have their doubts, I think Brian Kelly is building something special in Baton Rouge. After winning the national championship in 2019, LSU was a laughing stock in 2020 and 2021. Now under Brian Kelly, they should be perennial SEC and College Football Playoff contenders.

Brian Kelly is building a winning culture in Baton Rouge, and he's just getting started.

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