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USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Pete Fiutak

LSU Tigers Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players

LSU Tigers Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the LSU season with what you need to know and keys to the season.


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LSU Tigers Preview
Head Coach: Brian Kelly, 1st year at LSU
32nd year overall, 284-101, 2021 Preview
2021 Record: Overall: 6-7, Conference: 3-5
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
LSU Top 10 Players | LSU Schedule & Analysis

LSU Tigers Preview 2022

Winning lots and lots and lots of games, being in the College Football Playoff and national title chases just about every year, and then have it all go horribly wrong with unremarkable performances when it really mattered worked at Notre Dame, for the most part, but …

You either win the national championship at LSU, or you don’t.

Welcome to the job, Brian Kelly. Did you win a national title yet for the Tigers?

Ha ha … very funny.

No, really. Did you?

Nick Saban – who won the 2013 national championship at LSU – could take this job and be totally immune from any critique before the era begins. He’s about it. Anyone else is supposed to step into this national-championship-or-bust gig full of suffocating expectations and win it all immediately – and that’s not totally wrong.

This is one of those programs that’s bound by nothing.

It has the resources, the history, the recruiting, the swag of Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, and the recent memory of possibly the greatest season in the history of the sport.

Of course, there’s that little problem of needing to hit refresh while working in the best division in the best conference, all while that coach up in Tuscaloosa is on an all-time heater, and Jimbo is amassing talent by the bucket load down in College Station, and Kirby isn’t slowing down in the other division …

There’s a reason why one of the early win total lines was set at 6.5.

No, LSU fans aren’t crazy, and they’re not unreasonable considering the success of three national championships in the BCS/CFP era under three different head coaches. But by bringing in Kelly, LSU is making a statement that it’s time to win RIGHT NOW … or at least look great before it all kicks in next year.

Had it brought in Billy Napier or Dave Aranda – I’m more than prepared to eat it if Kelly wins multiple national titles, but I’m still screaming that either of those other two would’ve been the better long-term move – there might be some acknowledgement of a rebuilt/reboot after going 11-12 since the epic 15-0 2019 season.

You get Kelly – who bailed on his Irish team while it was still in the College Football Playoff hunt to get this all going – and you’re saying the grace period is defined as a strong winning season in Year One – with at least two big-name wins – and a national championship in Year Two.

And he might just do it.

Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
LSU Top 10 Players | LSU Schedule & Analysis

LSU Tigers: Offense, Defense Breakdowns NEXT

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