Brian Kelly calls LSU a 'total failure' after loss to Florida State. No argument here

ORLANDO, Fla. – After Florida State ripped LSU apart, the shredding continued in a postgame news conference that bordered on shocking.

Brian Kelly laid bare LSU football’s failures, sparing no one from his blistering rebuke. He called out himself, his staff and his team in an unrestrained way not often heard from a college coach after a loss in hostile environment to a top-10 opponent.

"We certainly are not the football team I thought we were," Kelly said Sunday after No. 5 LSU’s 45-24 loss to No. 8 Florida State, "and we’ve got to do a much better job, obviously, in developing our football team. We clearly were short in a lot of areas tonight, and that falls on me."

Kelly was just getting warmed up.

"This is a total failure," he said, "from a coaching standpoint and a player standpoint that we have to obviously address and we have to own."

Kelly described his team as a bunch of imposters.

"We thought we were the two-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs or something," he said. "I don’t know what we thought, but we were mistaken."

Mercy.

Such harsh reproaches of a performance usually are reserved for people who occupy my chair.

I probably shouldn’t bother with a defense of LSU, because its own coach offered none, but I will say, this matchup of talent-rich teams was competitive for more than three quarters. A failure to execute in a few critical fourth-down situations meant LSU left more than a few points out there.

But the cold truth is FSU whupped LSU at the lines of scrimmage, FSU quarterback Jordan Travis outplayed LSU’s Jayden Daniels, FSU's wide receivers outplayed LSU’s, and LSU’s secondary looked like the liability that Kelly had warned it might be.

LSU applied some pressure on Travis throughout the first half, but he enjoyed comfortable pockets after halftime, and he and standout wide receivers Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson blistered the Tigers.

The Seminoles’ stars played like stars.

The Tigers’ stars played like ordinary Joes.

The Witness Protection Program should ask LSU for tips on how to hide someone after the way Harold Perkins disappeared. Perkins was a disruptive edge rusher as a freshman. LSU shifted him to inside linebacker before this season. A guy who had been one of the nation's most exciting young players made five tackles against FSU and never harassed the quarterback.

"We put (Perkins) in a position last year where he was, ‘See ball, get ball,’" Kelly said. "Now he's in a position where he’s (asked to do more)."

Maybe, LSU should revert Perkins to see ball, get ball, because what it received Sunday from one of its projected stars won’t stand, especially not for a defense with a patchwork secondary. The Tigers’ front must be more menacing.

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Daniels looked like he’d regressed to the version of the quarterback who struggled to make reads in last season’s opening loss to Florida State. Too many times, he either didn’t spot open targets or made the wrong read on run-pass option plays.

"What Coach was talking about, the urgency and the choices we make, he's right," Daniels said. "Everything falls back on me. Being the leader and the quarterback on the team, I have to get the guys going."

LSU barely tried running the ball, perhaps a recognition that its line couldn’t handle FSU’s physicality.

Kelly’s bravado had been sky high a few days ago. He vowed that LSU would “beat the heck out of Florida State.”

The Tigers didn’t back up their coach’s big talk.

"It's good to be able to play the game," FSU coach Mike Norvell said of his team’s rebuttal.

At Notre Dame, Kelly developed a reputation as a coach who would win most of his games but lose the big ones. LSU’s upset of Alabama last November gave that narrative a rest, but it’s back in play after the Tigers’ second loss to FSU in as many seasons.

Kelly’s first season at LSU became defined by how his Tigers rebounded and showed resilience after a sloppy loss to the Seminoles. This season wasn’t supposed to be relegated to a feel-good story of a team picking itself off the mat.

LSU came here with a lofty preseason ranking, a ballyhooed veteran quarterback, a bevy of talent and projections of contending for the College Football Playoff.

A lot of hype for a product that didn’t live up to its billing, but don’t just take it from me. Hear it from the coach who assembled this effort.

"Disappointing," Kelly said.

That ranked as one of his kinder assessments of this dud.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.