Brian Kelly apologizes for berating reporter after LSU's win over Florida

LSU head coach Brian Kelly opened his weekly press conference with local media on Monday by apologizing to reporter Mike Cauble of WBRZ-TV for his outburst following the Tigers' 20-10 win over Florida on Saturday night. 

Kelly said he apologized privately to Cauble before apologizing publicly. 

"I think it's important to understand my standards relative to how we work with the media on a day-to-day basis need to be higher, and I take responsibility for that. I will be better in the future. The emotions of the game, right after it, I haven't watched any film, it's difficult to make those assessments of specifics. And I'm going to defend my team. I'm going to defend my players, first and foremost."

Of course, the apology was necessary because this is how Kelly responded to the question, "What are you seeing with your offense?"

"Stop. Really? Is that the first question? We won the game, 20-10," Kelly said. "Try another question. What do you want me to tell you? I just laid it out for you. We played the game to win the game. We played the game to win the game.

"It's one game. Last game, we were great on third down. You're micro ... you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. LSU won the football game. Won the game. I don't know what you want from me. You want us to win 70 to nothing against Florida to keep you happy? We can run the ball. Did you see the last play of the game? That's all you need. You just need one. These are ridiculous questions, and I'm getting tired of it. That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win, and you want to know what's wrong."

It was a totally fair question, and open-ended enough that Kelly's response clearly showed he knew the LSU offense was not good on Saturday night.

The LSU defense swiped five interceptions; the LSU offense turned four of those picks into 13 points -- Lagway's third interception was taken 58 yards to the house, the only points either team scored in the second half. The Tigers went 4-of-14 on third down and gained only 322 yards from scrimmage. On a down-to-down basis, Florida out-played LSU over the course of the game.

For the year, LSU is 95th nationally in passing efficiency, 70th on third down, 117th in rushing, 113th in red zone touchdown percentage, and 108th in scoring -- and that's including the aforementioned help from the defense. The club is ranked No. 3 on the strength of a road win over Clemson, which looks less impressive now than it did on the time. Kelly said quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is playing through a torso injury, which he'll have to continue to play through until LSU's Oct. 4 off week, which comes after a trip to No. 13 Ole Miss on Sept. 27. 

So, this offense has some stuff to work through and Kelly knows it, as his nothing-to-see-here response on Saturday night indicated. But, as he said, they did win the game.