Brian Kelly, LSU Football Preparing to Spend Big in the NCAA Transfer Portal

Kelly revealed a "promise" leading up to last weekend's contest, looking to reconstruct roster ahead of 2025 season.

Nov 16, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly looks on before a game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Belleville (Mich.) five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood revealed last week that he would be flipping his commitment from the LSU Tigers to the Michigan Wolverines with the decision sending shockwaves across college football.

Underwood, the No. 1 player in America, had previously been committed to the Bayou Bengals for over 300 days prior to his decision.

The news came on the heels of Michigan piecing together an NIL package north of $10.5 million with Underwood accepting "life-changing" money.

But now with Underwood out of the mix for the LSU Tigers, who were also preparing to give the top-ranked prospect a significant NIL package, it's freed up funds for the program.

Where will the funds go? The NCAA Transfer Portal.

During Saturday night's contest against the Vanderbilt Commodores, SEC Network play-by-play announcer Tom Hart and analyst Jordan Rodgers dove into their thoughts and previous conversations with Kelly leading up to game day.

“The amount of money that Bryce Underwood was commanding was unreal,” Rodgers said, “You take that off the books a little bit, now you can figure out how you want to build this roster around, hopefully, a quarterback that wants to come back in Garrett Nussmeier.”

For Hart, he dove into a conversation he had with Kelly leading up to kickoff in Baton Rouge with the shot-caller for LSU providing a "promise" to the program.

“I had that conversation with Brian Kelly at the facility yesterday, ‘He said, listen, we lose the kid and he ends up at Michigan and it is what it is, but now all of sudden the financial freedom we have to spend on guys that would get a little bit more, to lure more.

“He said ‘I promise, we’re going to take that to another level’,” Hart said.

Now, heading into this offseason, will Kelly change his approach?

He shared his thought process on the NCAA Transfer Portal, the program's approach and more last week:

“The transfer portal will not go away,” Kelly said last Monday. “The transfer portal will be something we have to investigate and look at. I do not want a program that is built on the portal. We have to rely on young players. We are plying a lot of young players right now. A lot of first year players, those that have been here for a very short period of time. We have 19 coming in at mid semester, so we’re still going to be playing some younger players, but there needs to be the right mix and right balance. 

“The transfer portal will be something that will be examined closely and if we feel like there’s a particular need there to balance our football team, we’re certainly going to be invested in that.”

It'll be an interesting next few months for Kelly and the LSU staff. The decision-maker for the Tigers doesn't appear interested on loading up on talent from a quantity perspective, but the quality-level certainly must change.

More LSU News:

Paul Finebaum: LSU, Brian Kelly in a "Really Bad Spot" Moving Forward

LSU Dishes Out Offer to No. 1 Quarterback in America

Nick Saban Calls LSU Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier a "Sleeper" Ahead of 2024 Season

Join the Community:

Follow Zack Nagy on Twitter: @znagy20 and LSU Tigers On SI: @LSUTigersSI for all coverage surrounding the LSU program.