Marcus Spears: LSU fanbase will turn on Brian Kelly if Tigers miss College Football Playoff

Marcus Spears put all of the pressure on Brian Kelly deliver in a big way for LSU this coming season. The ESPN analyst and former LSU star knows the Tiger fanbase will turn on the head coach if expectations aren’t met in 2025.

Going into Year 4, people expect Kelly and LSU to make a big jump. His first season was successful, given that he led LSU to the SEC Championship. But since then, they haven’t and haven’t sniffed the College Football Playoff.

Everything sets up for LSU to have a monster season when you factor in experience, additions and expectations. With a 12-team playoff, there’s room to make it in so there are no excuses for Kelly.

“LSU is in that window now … where if you don’t win big, if you’re Brian Kelly, this fan base is done,” Spears said on Get Up. “And I’m just telling you, the wins and the success and all of the things, going to the SEC Championship your first year was, was great, but people still didn’t feel like that was like a big time accomplishment based on how it happened. This year, you see all of the transfers, you see the recruiting class, Garrett Nussmeier in the preseason Heisman conversation, all of those things in the past at LSU has aligned with them having big seasons. 

Marcus Spears: Brian Kelly has massive pressure to get to CFP

“It doesn’t guarantee a championship, but it should guarantee you being a playoff contender. And if they are not, if they are on the outside looking in in the playoffs, this fan base is going to quickly turn on Brian Kelly. And it’s almost like (there’s) been situations where they’ve been waiting to do it. This would be that inflection point if LSU doesn’t win big this year. (I’m telling) y’all what I know, not what I think.”

Things could get started off on the right foot or be disastrous. LSU heads to Clemson for a Week 1 matchup that could really be the story of the season. Perhaps it’s unfair to pin it on one game, but even Kelly noted how important the opener was to the program.

“We have a great deal of respect for Clemson,” Kelly said. “I think that’s a given because of my background playing Clemson as an ACC team. So I have great respect for what Dabo [Swinney] has built and the championships. But at the end of the day, our feeling is that this is a goal of ours. This is one of our tangible goals that we have put out front that we want to start the season 1-0. It’s important to us. So our offseason training has been about that.”