How LSU football's Brian Kelly borrows from Kim Mulkey playbook | Toppmeyer

USA TODAY NETWORK
NASHVILLE – One of the great debates at our annual bash of bloviators is whether Alabama or LSU is the smart choice to win the SEC West.
Brian Kelly, I think, would be comfortable with LSU’s place in that conversation. He’s been talking tough toward Alabama all offseason. But he'll go no further.
Kelly has carefully downplayed any national championship expectations entering his second season. As part of his Monday address at SEC Media Days, the LSU coach praised two-time defending national champion Georgia as the team everyone continues to chase.
“I know that based upon how we've recruited and how we'll continue to recruit that we'll have a football roster that will be able to compete against Georgia,” Kelly said. “Is that right now? No, it's not.”
This isn’t Kelly's first time taking this stance. I asked Kelly last month when he thought LSU would be positioned to seriously contend for a national championship, and he identified 2024, highlighting the continued need to build depth and sign another recruiting class.
Kelly’s full of swagger, and he loves his quarterback room.
So, what gives? Is this a veteran coach trying to recast national championship pressures into the future?
I don’t see it that way. Rather, this presents as a page from the Kim Mulkey playbook.
Throughout the past women’s basketball season, Mulkey correctly reminded anyone who’d listen that South Carolina had assembled a wealth of talent and was the appropriate frontrunner. That achieved two objectives. It ensured the spotlight and its accompanying pressures remained trained on Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, and it also served as a reminder that, as a second-year coach, Mulkey had not enjoyed the same amount of runway to assemble a roster as deep as South Carolina’s.
Mulkey’s Tigers won the national championship anyway, its stars jelling during the NCAA tournament. Prevailing in football requires a level of depth not required in hoops.
Plug-and-play transfers fueled Mulkey's March Madness run. Kelly’s been active in the transfer portal, too, more active than he’d like. He'd prefer to use transfers as caulk for a few cracks, but he’s been patching holes in tires after inheriting a roster that had 39 scholarship players just 18 months ago.
The roster looks much different now, and five offensive line starters return among a familiar offensive unit.
There’s reason to like LSU, compared to Alabama. The Tigers won the game last season, and Alabama’s lineup no longer features Bryce Young.
Alabama does not boast a quarterback of Jayden Daniels’ caliber, nor does it have a wide receiver as proven as LSU’s Malik Nabers or a linebacker who takes over games like Harold Perkins.
Defensive line disruptors were the hallmarks of the early years in Nick Saban’s tenure, but if I could build a line around one player from either roster, give me LSU’s Maason Smith.
So, why is this even a debate? What’s the case for Alabama?
C’mon, it’s Alabama. The GOAT. The crimson. The script A, with its back against the wall. The last time Saban’s dynasty got written off, he bounced off the ropes with three more national championships in a six-year span. Alabama will host LSU this November, and Saban has lost just seven SEC home games his entire Alabama tenure.
Kelly’s concerns about LSU’s depth were illuminated last season in the weeks after the dramatic upset of Alabama. The Tigers were fortunate to beat Arkansas, thanks largely to Perkins’ singular effort. They lost to Texas A&M.
Kelly thinks his team is deeper now, but not as deep as he’d like, not as deep as Alabama.
LSU’s got Alabama outclassed on star power, but the Tide enjoys a depth advantage that comes from signing five consecutive recruiting classes ranked either No. 1 or 2 nationally.
Kelly thinks he needs another year of recruiting to shore up LSU's secondary, in particular. In the meantime, a school that claims it is "DBU" will rely on transfers from Southeastern Louisiana, Syracuse, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Ohio State and Georgia to form a patchwork defensive backfield that should be an improved product over last season.
“Corner and safety is an area of player development where we need freshmen to come in and develop,” Kelly told me in June. “We’ve taken the first step, but that will be the next big step in our program, will be freshmen corners and safeties."
Can LSU win the West? Absolutely. Its roster is sturdier than last season’s while Alabama’s features more questions.
Will LSU be the media’s pick in the West? I remain skeptical of that. Alabama holds a lot of sway in preseason voting, and it has won the SEC in six of the past nine seasons.
They’ll settle the debate in the November. Until then, Kelly isn't shying away from a challenge, but he's also mimicking Mulkey and reining in expectations.