Brian Kelly Under Fire From Former LSU Staffer For 'Creating Culture Problem'

The LSU Tigers enter their final week of the regular season with a 7-4 record. Head coach Brian Kelly has amassed a 27-12 record (15-6 in SEC play) in his three seasons at Baton Rouge.

The Tigers disappointing record mixed with news that the No. 1 recruit in the country, quarterback Bryce Underwood, flipped his commitment from LSU to Michigan last week has a lot of fans fed up with Kelly. After all, LSU had College Football Playoff expectations when they signed him to a 10-year deal worth $95 million before the 2022 season.

Ralph D. Russo and Bruce Feldman of The Athletic did a deep dive into Kelly's issues at LSU, talking to more than six sources with ties to the Tigers about problems with the program.

An anonymous former staffer thinks the way Kelly has installed his accountability system has caused deficiencies within the culture, as players can lose playing time for things such as not being on time to meetings or failing to pass the dress code. 

“You can’t be late for meetings," a former LSU staffer told The Athletic. "You’ve got to take your vitamins every day. You have to do a wellness check-in app on your phone every day, and for (some of) these guys it’s a foreign language to them. Installing culture is a great idea, but now the way you’re installing culture is actually creating a culture problem.”

Former LSU center Charles Turner suggested the culture problem wasn't just about the rules, but the way Kelly handles his business with the players in the locker room. Kelly doesn't communicate much with his players during the week.

“For Coach Kelly, I think this is a different dynamic for him, Turner said. "When I was playing for Kelly the last two years, I didn’t talk to him. I started every game for him. Just, ‘Hey, hi. How you doing?’ And that was really it. We never talked Xs and Os. I never sat in his office and got personal with him. He really never got to know me.”