Brian Kelly in the post-match press conference put his players under the bus for the loss. This happened minutes after LSU registered an ‘L’ in Game 1 against USC. As per the Boston native, his players could not manage the game in the final moments which caused them a tense defeat.
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While fans weren’t happy with this answer, Shannon Sharpe was even more disappointed resulting in the NFL legend calling out the HC publicly.
In his appearance on “First Take”, Shannon Sharpe didn’t mince words as he called Kelly’s defense absurd. The broadcaster noted an interesting trend in Kelly’s post-match conferences where he tends to blame the players for the loss rather than take accountability himself. Thus Sharpe urged Kelly to first look inside himself and ask if he is the coach that he thinks he is, rather than blaming players.
“It’s BS. I think he should have led with what he finished with. I’m not doing a good enough job. He did the exact same thing last year. Molly, when Florida State thumped him clearly, we’re not the team that I thought we were. No, you’re not the coach that you thought you were at some point in time.“
What irked Sharpe the most was Kelly’s constant running away from taking responsibility for the losses. Hence he bluntly called out Kelly for being outcoached by his counterpart Lincoln Riley and called it a coaching issue rather than a personnel issue.
“It comes down to coaching and it comes down to accountability. Now you had ten penalties for basically 100 yards. You either coach that behaviour or you condone that type of behaviour. But how about this? Oh, and their quarterback outplayed hours? [But in reality], Lincoln Riley outcoached you.”
For someone who is paid 11 million dollars to coach a playoff team, repeating the same reasons in year three of the project is worrisome. More worrying for Shannon however is the criticism that Kelly hands out to his players publicly.
Shannon Sharpe Points Out His Major Issue With Brian Kelly
In Shannon Sharpe’s books, a good coach is someone who can get to their players as a compatriot and can communicate their ideas well. So for the veteran broadcaster, every time Kelly complains about his players not listening to his instructions well, it comes off as a coaching issue rather than a personnel issue.
What if the player repeatedly commits the same mistake despite clear instructions? Even in such cases, Sharpe’s viewpoint is clear – don’t air your dirty laundry in public. And this is where his major issue with Kelly arises.
“If you wanted to do that behind closed doors, I got no problem with it,” said Shannon on Brian putting his players under the bus. “But Brian Kelly has a repeated behaviour of doing this, publicly chastising his players and obfuscating himself of it,” noted Sharpe.
That said, Shannon Sharpe’s words do have a lot of merit. Fans and media always put an enormous amount of public pressure on players in today’s day and age. So getting called out by the coach publicly is something that can definitely be avoided.
All said, time is certainly ticking for Coach Kelly. With the way things have started, only a quick turnaround in fortunes can help keep the Boston native at the helm.
