"Understanding what their sleep patterns are": When Brian Kelly revealed using sports science as a tool at LSU

During Brian Kelly's time in charge of the LSU Tigers, he has had mixed success with the team. The 2025 season is generally seen as a make or break for his time with the Tigers. The team needs to improve on their performance, and one way to do this is to accurately use techniques and knowledge from sports science.

Brian Kelly spoke about how his program uses sports science during an interview with "Bussin with the Boys" in April 2023.

"My role is to put together a high performance that includes mental performance training, nutrition to strength conditioning to understanding what their sleep patterns are." (14:00)

The implementation of sports science techniques in college football (and sports in general) has taken off in the last 20 years. Due to the advancements in technology, players can now wear sensors that will provide the coaching staff with information about various aspects of a player's performance.

This data is being combined with an increased knowledge of the impact of diet and even the amount of sleep on performance to allow coaches to implement action plans.

This is a trend that is only going to grow in the coming years, with many college football programs implementing similar systems to help their players. This has helped LSU to develop numerous top players on offense, including Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers and Garrett Nussmeier to name a few.

Now, Kelly needs to use this data to help improve his team so that they make the College Football Playoff next season, which is likely to be the minimum expectation for the Tigers next season.

Brian Kelly on LSU's decision to cancel the spring game

Brian Kelly has also spoken about his decision to cancel the LSU spring game. The most common reason given by college football coaches for cancellation is the risk that a player's performance in this game will mean that they are going to transfer out of the program. Kelly appears to reject this mindset.

“I wasn’t worried about that. I mean, I think if you’re going to lose a player, it’s not because of what they put on film in the spring ball; it’s because of what’s happened, you know, throughout the entire semester or year. I think that was just an easy sound bite to, you know, get out from under having the spring game. That’s just my opinion.”

For Brian Kelly, the cancellation of the spring game has not a lot to do with the impact of the transfer portal and sees that as only an excuse to bring attention to oneself.