Brian Kelly clarifies comments towards Dabo Swinney after LSU-Clemson Week 1 game

LSU’s Week 1 victory over Clemson has sparked a bit of a back-and-forth war of words between Brian Kelly and Dabo Swinney. But according to Kelly, this wasn’t exactly his intention, despite taking issue with Swinney’s postgame comments at the time.

Following the loss, Swinney shared a rather optimistic view on his team’s 17-10 defeat, explaining how he felt it was a “hell of a game” that came down to the final play in a game where neither team was hitting their stride. Additionally, he graded both team’s performance after the game, giving both teams failing grades, with Clemson at a 58/100 and LSU at 65/100.

“It was a hell of a game,” Swinney said after the Week 1 matchup. “Down to the last play. It’s like getting the final exam, day one of class. They made a 65, we made a 58. Neither one of us were great.”

Several days later, Kelly was asked what he thought about Swinney’s assessment of both teams. And it was clear that Kelly had a far different takeaway from the game than Swinney had.

“I thought we dominated them in the second half,” said Kelly. “So, he’s either a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us. Or he didn’t see the second half. That might be the case, he might not have wanted to see the second half.”

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Today #LSU HC Brian Kelly responded to #Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s grading scale following the week one matchup‼️🐯#lsu #lsufootball #clemson #CollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/4TCKDL4iOl

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Kelly clearly thought that Swinney was either taking a swipe at his team with his original comment or that Clemson could have won the game had his own team performed up to their capabilities. But regardless of whether that was the case or not, Kelly cleared up his comments about Swinney during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday, saying that Swinney is a coach that he respects a great deal.

“I really didn’t have a reaction to it,” said Kelly of his response to Swinney. “I answered a question from the press conference about it. So, I had already moved on. But in fairness to the member of the media who asked it, I felt that I should answer it. And my answer was I didn’t think he saw the second half if he graded us that low. That’s really it. I wasn’t taking a shot at Dabo. I’ve got a ton of respect for him. But sometimes you have to put it in context. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, let me talk about Dabo here.’ I had no idea what he said. But it was brought up and I thought that it was my responsibility to answer the question. And I answered it honestly. I guess it gets portrayed the way people want to portray it.”

Kelly may not have meant anything by his response to Swinney’s initial comments. But should these two teams potentially meet again in this year’s CFP, expect for Swinney and Clemson to have a little extra motivation.