What does a successful season in 2025 look like?
Well it’s almost that time. With fall camp starting today I offered up two questions to the gang, with part one coming today and part two on deck tomorrow.
Question #1
What’s the bare minimum expectation for this 2025 season to be considered successful? Is this a natty or bust situation?
Max
Absolutely not. The only title or bust seasons are those like Ohio State last year where it’s obvious everything has come together and you’ve pushed every single chip in to the point you are *noticeably* more talented than everyone else. LSU is very good but they’re not that, nobody really is this year, and I don’t think LSU is looking at a situation where they won’t have a roster like this for a while. Just make the playoff. The NIL/portal operation is still new, they’re still building a front office, everyone relax, they’re not behind anymore they’re just getting it up and running.
They will lose to Clemson, and aside from the arbitrary “another week 1 loss” garbage that could derail the team if it gets too loud, that’s FINE. Clemson is loaded, experienced together, and playing the game on their campus, LSU has a bunch of transfers and a new team. Blame the Athletic Department for that loss, not them. From there, they have to just stay focused and they’ll be fine. They’re good, they’ll get better as the year goes on, but I’m worried about all the emphasis being put on week 1 from within and without. They’re setting themselves up for distraction and noise when they lose a game they have little chance to win. If they do win it though, they’re probably winning it all. Make the 12 team TV contract invitational and it’s fine.
Dee
I wouldn’t say natty or bust, but I think realistically it’s playoffs or bust at this point. LSU fans have limited patience for coaches to start getting results, so year 4 for Kelly feels like a do or die situation.
Matt
Definitely don’t think it’s title or bust, but it is playoff or you’re out. They’re spent too much money on this current roster and have way too much talent to not make a 12 team playoff out of the SEC. I agree they’ll likely lose to Clemson, but their schedule is winnable down the stretch from there IMO.
Evan
Missing the Playoff this year would be unacceptable for a variety of factors. This is Year 4 for Brian Kelly. The previous three coaches all had titles by the end of Year 4. Kelly has the advantage of a 12-team playoff, a roster loaded with transfer talent, and an SEC that doesn’t look quite as top-to-bottom dominant as it was in past years. I think I’m being very generous not having a title mandate.
That being said, fizzling out when a championship is on the line was a trend Kelly’s best Notre Dame teams all shared. If LSU makes the playoff but has a subpar showing, it will leave a very sour taste in our mouths. The promise of hiring Brian Kelly was sustained championship contention. We are a long way from fulfilling that promise and it HAS to begin this year.
Poseur
Anyone who thinks any team in a playoff format is National Title or Bust is an idiot. The rules have changed, and no team is going to be able to make that their minimum goal simply due to the inherent random variances in a long playoff. You just can’t make those kind of goals anymore. Now, is a playoff bid the absolute bare minimum for success this year? 100%. But you can go 12-0 and not even make the title game anymore. And frankly, its not that surprising it already happened in Year One of the playoff era. It will happen again. And again. The regular season goal is the playoffs. Postseason will increasingly become its own animal, like every other sport.
Ick. I threw up in my mouth. College football is like everyone else. Additionally, as we move to super conferences, undefeated teams in the SEC and Big Ten will likely become increasingly rare. The old rules do no apply. I hate it here.
Adam
It’s quite frankly sack up or pack up time for Brian Kelly. Point blank. And it starts week one.
A lot of what has happened between February and now has papered over the three game losing streak and the great shame that was Underwood’s decommitment but yet another loss to open the season will have that paper fall directly off the wall.
And while it *probably* won’t happen, looking at the schedule and it’s not a far leap to see a 2-4 start, which no LSU coach can come back from, let alone Brian Kelly in year four. Even if this team loses four games all year, who those four will come against will likely be cause enough for the guillotine to drop. LSU boosters, fans, and brass can look past a loss to Bama or Georgia here or there, but if this is a case of dropping a second game in a row to A&M or Napier or to Shane Beamer at home, that won’t be accepted.
So with that being said, a playoff appearance is not the goal, it is the baseline expectation. While Poseur is right in that national championship cannot be expected anymore, LSU football should be a regular within the playoffs. The implication that LSU is not a top 12 team that season is representative of failed season. Plain and simple, there is no reason for LSU football to miss that mark more than two years in a row. For this to be considered a successful season, I would want to be playing in the second round, either via a first round win or a bye.
Brad
Play for the conference Championship and play for the national title. And not back our way into any of it. This is one of those years that I expect us to be on the top 4 teams in the conference title discussion all the way until Nov 25th. That we are not hoping for chaos that last week of the month or that we really need another team to lose 2 more games. And I get there is now a massive benefit to avoid the SEC championship and get healthy for the play off run. But not this year, my belief is we should be using the conference title match to earn a bye for playoff seeding. It is a CFP semifinals or bust season. That should absolutely be the expectation. The dude went out and spent three years of funding on this roster for 2025. I want it to show up in a big way. Fans rightfully have the absolute conviction that he asked for championship roster funding and we delivered, now we expect reciprocity in on field results