LSU head coach Brian Kelly joined The Paul Finebaum Show this week, and one of the topics he discussed is his response to Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney’s comments.

Of course, Kelly and Swinney went viral recently for their exchange following their respective teams’ season opener at Clemson’s Death Valley on Aug. 30.

Swinney compared Clemson’s 17-10 loss against LSU to a “final exam” on the first day of class and gave LSU a grade of 65 while grading Clemson at a 58.

Kelly seemed to take Swinney’s comments as a slight against his team and said, “I thought we dominated them in the second half. So, he’s either a really good grader, for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us.” Kelly also appeared to take a jab at Swinney, saying he “might not have wanted to see the second half.”

On The Paul Finebaum Show, Kelly reflected on his back-and-forth with Swinney in the media and attempted to clarify his reaction to Swinney’s comments/grading scale.

 “I really didn’t have a reaction,” Kelly said. “I answered a question from the press conference about it, and so I had already moved on. But in fairness to the member of the media that asked the question, I felt that I should answer it, and my answer was, I didn’t think he saw the second half, if he graded us that low, and that’s really it. I wasn’t taking a shot at Dabo.

“I’ve got a ton of respect for him, but, you know, sometimes you have to put it in context, right? I mean, it wasn’t like, ‘Hey, let me talk about Dabo here, because I heard what he said.’ I had no idea what he said, but it was brought up. And so I thought that it was my responsibility at a press conference to answer the question, and I answered it honestly. And I guess it gets portrayed the way people want to portray it.”

Whatever the case may be, we’ll get to see how Clemson and LSU grade out against one another next year when the two teams meet up again to open the 2026 season in Baton Rouge.

Kelly’s Tigers, who are 2-0 and ranked No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, host Florida at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC). Meanwhile, Swinney’s Tigers (1-1), ranked No. 12 in the AP Poll, travel to face Georgia Tech at noon Saturday (ESPN).