LSU’s head coach, Brian Kelly, is coming off a mixed 2024 campaign. The season ended with a record of nine wins and four losses, after some very high expectations at the start of the season. The season ended with a key recruitment loss as well, as quarterback Bryce Underwood flipped his recruitment to the Michigan Wolverines.
JD PicKell recently spoke about the upcoming LSU college football season. He spoke about Kelly’s secret weapon and what to expect from the upcoming season. The secret weapon that PicKell named was LSU’s general manager, Austin Thomas. Thomas has been hailed as one of the best GMs in the SEC despite LSU’s recent hiccups.
CFB Insider Calls LSU Ahead of the Game with Brian Kelly’s Strategic Use of GM Austin Thomas
LSU’s 2025 college football season looks promising as Brian Kelly gets praise for working with GM Austin Thomas, who handles key administrative roles and frees Kelly to focus on coaching. During Sunday’s On3 Sports podcast, college football analyst JD PicKell named Thomas as Kelly’s best weapon ahead of next season.
PicKell said that Thomas’s role in LSU anticipates the evolution of the general manager role in the sport of college football. Thomas handling all the administrative affairs such as recruiting, dealing with all the NIL stuff, and managing the roster, will allow for Kelly to really hone in on strictly coaching the team.
“If LSU is living in 2040 right now, with how they’ve structured their building…they’re operating from a step ahead from everybody else,” Pickell said. “LSU is in the best position right now structurally…with your GM overseeing the admin part of your football team and also to ensure that you have a structure that it all goes to the right place.”
“It allows Brian Kelly to do what he was brought there to do. Kelly of course has his hand in the roster and recruiting. It’s a massive part of his job. But Brian Kelly is a football coach. So, when you have another guy overseeing all the admin stuff as the G. M, that frees up your coaches to be coaches,” he added.
Last month, Thomas was given a three-year contract extension that raised his current salary from $425,000 to $850,000, per a Yahoo! Sports report. This more than shows Thomas’s importance to Kelly’s setup in Baton Rouge.
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LSU looks to get back on track as it continues to have high expectations. Despite the decent 9-4 record in 2024, it can be seem as a little bit of a letdown for a team who had such high expectations. Now, as we look ahead to 2025’s season, LSU looks to build off of last year and Thomas is expected to have a large part in that.
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