Brian Kelly did not want to talk about the offense’s struggles after LSU’s Week 3 win over Florida. The Tigers won by double digits to improve to 3-0, and in the moment, that was good enough for Kelly. The offense is a problem, though, and it needs to improve if LSU is to keep its undefeated season alive and contend for a national championship.
There are 39 unbeaten teams in the FBS through three weeks. LSU is clearly not the worst of that bunch. They knocked off two top-25 foes in Florida and Clemson in the opening quarter of the season, so it is not like the Tigers are simply scooting past poor competition. The offense in particular, though, is a different story. It is the worst of those 39 teams.
Of the undefeateds, LSU ranks dead last in points per game (20.0), yards per game (345.7), yards per play (5.3) and EPA per play (-0.04).
Those numbers are historically bad for an undefeated team. The 60 total points LSU tallied thus far are the fewest by a 3-0 team in the last six years, and the Tigers are now just the seventh team in the last quarter of a century to start 3-0 while averaging 20 points per game or fewer. In other words, this is not a sustainable model.
Started 3-0 averaging 20 ppg. or fewer (since 2000)
Okay, so the Tigers are not one of the 40 best offenses in college football. Surely they still stack up favorably in the grand scheme, right?
Not even close.
Their yardage and scoring totals rank towards the bottom of the FBS, and their efficiency numbers are abysmal. LSU stands just 95th nationally in EPA per play and a miserable 104th in success rate. That’s stat talk for “we can’t move the ball.”
“There’s gonna be some times in the SEC we’re gonna have to score more than 20 points,” Kelly said this week. “Let’s get that straight. I think we all know that. So this is about continuing to develop the areas that need that work, and it’s our running game. I believe we can throw the football every down if we need to, and I believe that we can protect effectively, so this is really about trying to work on your weaknesses and develop them as we go through this week and moving forward.”
The offensive line, at least in run blocking, is arguably chief among those weaknesses. It is a largely revamped group compared to the NFL draft prospect-laden units of years past, and too often it has put the Tigers in third-and-long situations. A banged-up Garrett Nussmeier — who Kelly revealed is battling through tightness in his torso — can only shoulder so much of the load with his passing game.
It is a good thing the defense has finally begun to hold up its end of the bargain after struggling mightily over the first three years of Kelly’s tenure, because that unit is suddenly LSU’s bread and butter. If not for the highly touted transfer portal additions on that side of the ball living up to their hype, the Tigers would likely be in a bad, bad place early in 2025.
No. 3 LSU returns to action on Saturday against SE Louisiana before traveling to No. 13 Ole Miss in Week 5.
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