The 2025 season for the LSU Tigers is an important year for the Tigers and especially head coach Brian Kelly.
The expectations are high that the Tigers can and will make their first College Football Playoff under Kelly.
If he doesn’t make the playoffs, there will be hell to pay, especially from the LSU fan base. But the Tigers' schedule, especially their opening matchup against the Clemson Tigers, is an early test of how good this team could be.
Fox college football analyst Joel Klatt says he thinks LSU could be a surprise team this year; however, he doesn’t think they will win their opening game against Clemson.
‘I’m a huge fan of LSU this, I think they could be a surprise team, it won’t surprise me if they are able to get this win, I just don’t think that they will,” Klatt said Monday on The Next Round.
Klatt says Kelly’s job may be in jeopardy if he doesn’t get it done this year.
“This is not going to be easy for LSU if you're talking pressure from a coaching perspective, I don’t know if there is another guy under more pressure than Brian Kelly. Maybe you can say James Franklin (head coach of Penn State), but James Franklin’s job is not in jeopardy and may be Brian Kelly’s job isn’t in jeopardy either but the outlining factor for Brian Kelly is his team that he left (Notre Dame) in large part because he thought they couldn’t get to the top in college football, is now better than LSU and playing for a national championship. Unfortunately for him, I think they are going to start with another loss, and that will not be good for him."