LSU head coach Brian Kelly says he has never “circled” a season opener before. However, things are different for Kelly this year, as his Bayou Bengals prepare for a marquee primetime matchup against Dabo Swinney’s Tigers at Clemson’s Death Valley.
Kelly recently joined the College GameDay Podcast and spoke about the season-opening showdown on Aug. 30, saying that LSU has “circled the game” against Clemson on the schedule.
“We’ve circled the game, and I’ve never done that before in openers,” he said. “It’s all over our weight room. It’s all over our workouts. We’re wearing shirts. We’re doing the kumbaya of ‘we’re playing Clemson, and we need to beat Clemson.’
“Is that too much pressure? No. I think we’ve got enough mature veteran guys on this team. We had a clear conversation about why we’re doing it, and they’re all in on that.”
After four previous postseason meetings, this year will mark the first meeting between Clemson and LSU in regular season play.
Clemson is 12-5 against SEC opponents in regular season play in the College Football Playoff era. This year will be Clemson’s first time opening a season at home since 2019, as the Tigers opened all five seasons from 2020-24 either on the road or at a neutral site. Clemson is 2-3 in those games, with neutral site losses to Georgia in 2021 (10-3) and 2024 (34-3), a 28-7 loss at Duke in 2023, a neutral site 41-10 win over Georgia Tech in 2022, and a 37-13 win at Wake Forest in 2020.
Meanwhile, LSU is 0-3 in season openers under Kelly, who took over the program in 2022. After losing 24-23 to Florida State in New Orleans to open the 2022 season, LSU lost to the Seminoles again in 2023, by a score of 45-24 in Orlando, before falling to Southern Cal, 27-20, in last year’s opener in Las Vegas.
“The fact of the matter is, they are exciting openers, and unfortunately we have not done well in those openers and haven’t had the outcomes that we wanted,” Kelly said. “Clemson will be a great challenge — but one that I think more than anything else, we have a football team that can go on the road, and that’s what you have to do. You have to have a defense that travels. And we finally have got the roster in a position where I believe these are the kind of games that you want to go and play, and you need to win them.
“And I’m not going to make any other statements other than the fact we need to win the opener, because we’re 0-3. Not that this will be a deciding factor of whether you get in the playoffs or not. It is a long haul. But we need it as a program and for the fan support and people to be rallying around this team, which I believe is going to be an outstanding team.”
CBS Sports recently released a composite preseason top 25, combining six different sets of post-spring top 25 rankings from various outlets.
LSU cracked the top 10 in that composite top 25, landing at No. 8, while Clemson checked in at No. 4.
Clemson is currently a 2.5-point favorite for the game against LSU, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, but Kelly believes his team has what it takes to go on the road into a hostile environment and come away with a W.
“Clemson is a top-five team, and we think we have a legitimate roster that has been supported over time in the transfer portal, so a good combination,” Kelly said. “Like I said, I’ve been in enough of these games. You go on the road, you better bring a defense. I think this is the first year where I believe defensively, we have the pieces in place to go into a very difficult place to play and come out victorious.”
Clemson vs. LSU was recently ranked by ESPN’s Greg McElroy as the second-best non-conference game of the 2025 college football season.
The game is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised on ABC.
–Photo courtesy of Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images