Brian Kelly: "We're Not in the Market of Buying Players" After LSU's Portal Issues

Kelly described the latest on the Tigers' search for defensive tackles, reiterates the development at LSU.

Nov 25, 2023; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly against the Texas / Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

LSU head coach Brian Kelly is fresh off of back-to-back 10 win seasons with the purple and gold, but as the new age of name, image and likeness ramps up, he'll be put to the test in order to piece together championship caliber rosters.

Kelly caught up with WAFB's Jacques Doucet where he made an emphatic statement regarding where LSU stands with NIL.

The CEO of LSU football told Doucet, "we are not in the market of buying players."

"Unfortunately, right now, that's what some guys are looking for," Kelly told WAFB. "They want to be bought."

Rather than simply buy talent, Kelly detailed the importance of player development, relationships and more as the sell for the Tigers. It's a new age of college football, and certainly LSU is adapting, but the price tag for some players remains incredibly high.

"If you like all the things that we do here in developing our players, bringing you in to a championship program, playing in front of the best fan base in America, playing for championships and having an opportunity for NIL, you should be a Tiger," Kelly said. "But if you just want to get paid, this is not the place for you."

Kelly's comments come fresh off of LSU's inability to lock in a defensive linemen via the NCAA Transfer Portal to this point. After swinging and missing on a trio of targets that visited campus, including both the No. 1 and No. 2 available defensive tackles in the free agent market at the time, LSU remains in search of depth up front.

"I think I made it clear in a number of the press conferences that I had that we were in the market in recruiting in the transfer portal looking for defensive linemen," Kelly told WAFB. "It hasn't fared very well quite frankly, because we're selling something a little bit different."

It's important to note that Kelly isn't simply disregarding the new era of college football, but after the price tag of a former target continued skyrocketing, the program simply backed away from a bidding war.

It's a case-by-case analysis, and for a certain defensive tackle that was in the portal, LSU didn't match other offers due to the fact that they weren't looking to deal out the cash.

Now, LSU remains in search of players via the portal to add depth to the defensive line as they gear up for summer workouts in the coming weeks.

For Kelly, his thoughts remain the same that his players can and will grow into the best athletes in America.

"We will develop you, we will get you ready for the next step as we did with Jayden Daniels, as we did with Malik Nabers, as we did with Brian Thomas," Kelly said. "We developed three defensive linemen that all got drafted this year. We'll do that again. But if you're just looking to get paid, you're looking in the wrong place."

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