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Brian Kelly addresses media, Tiger fans following victory over UCLA, Harold Perkins' season-ending injury
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BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tiger football team is onto its second home game in a row on Saturday after a win over the UCLA Bruins in week four of the season.
Head coach Brian Kelly met with the media on Monday to discuss the 34-17 win and to preview this week's upcoming game against the South Alabama Jaguars on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. in Death Valley.
Kelly immediately addressed linebacker Harold Perkins' season-ending ACL tear, noting that it was a tremendous loss for the team. The linebacker corps will likely take a new form in upcoming games, with Kelly saying that West Weeks and Greg Penn III will shift roles to fill in for Perkins' absence.
"We're not going to lose our identity or fall apart because of it," Kelly said.
It wasn't all negativity at Kelly's news conference. He recognized quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and defensive end Bradyn Swinson for their awards as SEC Offensive Player of the Week and SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week, respectively. Swinson previously received SEC Defensive Player of the Week after the win over South Carolina.
Kelly also praised tight end Mason Taylor, who he said broke the record for all-time receiving yards by a tight end.
"To get highlighted like that, you have to take a moment to go 'Ok, maybe they are doing a couple things that are pretty good,'" Kelly said.
Kelly also said that looking forward, he wants to fix "mental mistakes" a lot of the younger players are consistently making, including not coming out of a blitz pattern at the right time. He said he would also like to see the ball forced outside.
"Those are the areas that we believe, when you walk away at the end of the day, those are correctable," he said.
The Tigers are 3-1 following the win and are currently ranked No. 14 in the country in the latest Associated Press poll released Sunday.
Watch Kelly's news conference here.
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