Kelly’s LSU, for better or worse, has had the bar upped in 2023

Well, it’s that time of the year again.
With SEC Media Days behind us, let the hype train begin and let football season wash over us once more.
Yes, I know it’s still 105 degrees outside at 7 p.m. and you have to figure out how you’re going to cut your grass in this nonsense. But, please, just work with me here.
After all, the only thing hotter than this summer’s temperatures may be the heat that’s being turned up on the expectations for LSU football in 2023.
By all accounts, the Tigers punched above their weight in Brian Kelly’s first year in beating Alabama, winning the SEC West and going to the SEC Championship game.
Some of that was due to the job Kelly did in finding reliable contributors from the vestiges of the depth chart (hello, Josh Williams) and some of that was due to the emergence of quarterback Jayden Daniels’ development into a player who finally began tapping his limitless potential.
With all that said, there is a very big difference between last season and this season for LSU. And, strangely enough, it has nothing to do with football.
Two years ago, athletic director Scott Woodward set out on building his department in his image and made several new head coach hires.
Two of those, baseball coach Jay Johnson and women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey, have gone on to deliver national championships in their second seasons in their positions.
So, it goes without saying that there may be some extra pressure levied upon Kelly and his team from the more unreasonable and extreme corners of Tiger Nation.
Unfortunately, it’s usually those who are most unreasonable that will scream the loudest and be the most vocal.
Translation: There are some who expect Kelly to deliver a national championship in his second year as the head coach of LSU.
That’s a tall task to levy upon a coach who, himself, has said that he thinks the third year is a more reasonable time table in order for he and his staff to fully integrate the infrastructure and players required.
The vocal minority didn’t like that comment. But, I also tend to believe that the vocal minority lives their lives buying into message board hype.
Regardless of whether you believe LSU can (yes) and will (maybe) compete for a national title this season, we’ll learn a lot more about if this team is built for pressure right out of the gate when LSU sees Florida State in a matchup of two preseason top-ten teams.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think that a win or a loss propels or dooms LSU from the College Football Playoff discussion. It’s a toss-up game between two teams with big dreams. And, if college football has taught us anything in our lifetimes, an early-season loss is much less of a death knell than a late-season one.
LSU’s conference road matchups with Alabama and Ole Miss will do a lot more than to determine its fate in my opinion. Both of those games could be loseable.
Regardless, when it comes down to it, the moral of the story will be this …
We should look for LSU to be successful in 2023 as it continues to build towards that 2024 target date.
However, what some people consider success versus others will be the slippery slope Kelly has to navigate.
For some, anything less than an SEC title will be a failure.
For others, a continued trajectory of improvement and a strong showing throughout the season will be just fine.
For many of us, we just want to beat Alabama.
Whatever your definition of success is, get strapped in for 2023.
Because, in my opinion, it’s going to be explosive one way or the other.