| Former LSU safety Greg Brooks and his family had their say on national television about how they thought the school did not do enough to care for him after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Wednesday, LSU coach Brian Kelly had his response, saying it was "factually incorrect to state that I was not there by Greg's side through this ordeal." In his time at LSU, I've never seen Kelly so worked up about an issue as he was about this. "It hit my heart because that's not why I'm in this business," he said. You can read the entire writeup of what Kelly said here with Koki Riley's excellent reporting. Kelly spoke on a wide variety of topics, including what he was allowed to say about quarterback Colin Hurley, who was recently involved in a serious on-campus car accident. He also had this to say about new tight ends coach Alex Atkins: ---------------------------- Brian Kelly discusses LSU's staff changes, including Alex Atkins' impact on the running game LSU football overhauled its coaching staff a season ago. Its struggles on defense — combined with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock's decision to return to Notre Dame — meant the Tigers needed to add coordinators on both sides of the ball and bring in new positional coaches on all three levels of the defense. This offseason, the staff changes haven't been as dramatic — LSU needed to replace only one positional coach. But there has been plenty of movement within the Tigers' analyst and player personnel departments this winter. "I think it's suffice to say that we've got some change but some continuity, which I like the blending of both as it relates to our support staff," LSU coach Brian Kelly said Wednesday. The most notable addition to the coaching staff has been Alex Atkins, the former Florida State offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Atkins was fired by the Seminoles in November as they finished this past season with a 2-10 record. Atkins will serve as the LSU tight ends coach and run game coordinator. He replaces tight ends and special teams coach Slade Nagle, who left the Tigers to become the offensive coordinator at Houston in December. "He brings a great deal of experience as a coordinator," Kelly said. "But more importantly, his depth and background in the run game as an offensive line coach, he adds another perspective in that room." LSU's rushing attack struggled for much of last season, averaging less than 4 yards per carry in half of its games against SEC competition. The tight ends, in particular, struggled blocking in the run game. "He will not be stepping on (offensive line coach Brad Davis') toes. Brad's done an incredible job," Kelly said. "This is really having somebody that will coach the tight ends and have a specific focus towards our run game and how it marries and matches to what I'm looking for within our overall offensive structure. "Having somebody that has his eye on it every day ... that was a great need." Atkins fills the void Nagle leaves in the tight ends room, but he won't fill Nagle's role as special teams coordinator. Nor will senior special teams analyst Lester Erb or Bob Diaco, LSU's interim special teams coordinator in 2023 who served as a defensive analyst last season. Diaco left this offseason to become the linebackers coach at North Carolina, while Erb was let go. Both exits left a void within the coaching staff as it pertains to special teams. To fill it, LSU hired Grambling special teams coordinator Aman Anand as a special teams senior analyst. Additionally, Kelly said he plans on hiring another special teams coach to support the unit. "We feel really good about that," Kelly said. Besides Anand, the Tigers have hired East Carolina general manager Noah Joseph — who worked with LSU defensive coordinator Black Baker at Missouri — as a defensive analyst. They're also in the process of adding Lance Guidry — Miami's defensive coordinator for the past two seasons — to the staff as a defensive analyst, sources told The Advocate. On the other side of the ball, Kelly announced the hirings of former Oklahoma State quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay and Oregon offensive analyst Antonio Parks as offensive analysts. Rattay and Parks help replace offensive analysts Todd Fitch and Paul Turner, who both left the program to become the offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, respectively, at Charlotte. "We're excited about those that have moved on as well because they've been given great opportunities," Kelly said. The Tigers made even more changes to their player personnel department, naming JR Belton the new director of football operations and elevating Donovan Tate into the role of director of recruiting. The new titles for Tate and Belton — combined with LSU parting ways with six staff members — prompted a question to Kelly regarding whether these changes were related to LSU needing to save money because of revenue sharing expected to begin this summer. Kelly denied that the adjustments made to the support staff was to save money. But he does know there will be programs around the country cutting costs because of revenue sharing. "That has not been the case here," Kelly said. ---------------------------- Our Wilson Alexander also has contract details on Atkins. The No. 6-ranked LSU women's team is back on the road Thursday at Missouri. The game tips at 6:30 p.m. and is available streaming only on SECNetwork+. LSU's defense is improving, writes Reed Darcey, but is it enough to suit coach Kim Mulkey? ---------------------------- Are the LSU women defending up to Kim Mulkey's standard? Here's what the numbers say. The LSU women’s basketball team is improving how it plays defense, but that’s not quite good enough for coach Kim Mulkey. In her eyes, the No. 6 Tigers always have something to refine at that end of the floor. Sometimes, the problems are broader, with issues of effort or focus. In December, Mulkey said she thought her team needed to do some “soul searching” to figure out whether it wanted to “take pride” in its defense. Other times, the concerns are more granular. Maybe LSU can grab more rebounds or force more turnovers. Maybe it can — as Mulkey said on Sunday after a win over Mississippi State — thwart more of its opponents’ transition opportunities. “Are we better?” Mulkey said. “We're better. But I want perfect.” LSU has only seven regular-season games left to find perfection. The first of those contests, a road matchup with Missouri, will tip off at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on SEC Network+. In that game, the Tigers will try to prevent their opponent from shooting at least 40% from the field for a fifth time in their previous six contests. That threshold usually is what separates LSU from its wins and losses. In four seasons under Mulkey, the Tigers have lost eight regular-season games to Southeastern Conference teams, and six of those losses have come against an opponent that connected on at least 40% of its shots. This season, LSU is allowing its conference opponents to shoot 41% from the field — the fourth-best rate in the league. That number is higher than the 38% rate at which SEC teams converted their field goals against Mulkey’s first three LSU teams, and it’s receiving a boost from LSU’s relatively slow defensive start. Three of its first four opponents in 2025 shot at least 40% from the field. The numbers have improved since then. Now, the Tigers rank fifth among SEC teams in points allowed per possession (0.92), according to Her Hoop Stats, fourth in turnovers forced per game (18.4) and sixth in blocked shots per game (3.8) in league play. Mulkey thinks LSU can improve how it cleans the defensive glass and defends in transition. “We still don't communicate,” Mulkey said. “We have a tendency to loaf — not go really hard back down on the other end, either after we score or even if there’s been a turnover. “I think a lot of it is nothing more than communicating and understanding, from foul line to foul line, you cannot get in a loaf trot. You got to run. And it's actually our perimeter most of the time more than it is our post players.” Each of Mulkey’s first three LSU teams grabbed defensive boards at one of the five best rates in the SEC, per Her Hoop Stats, yet this one is doing so at one of the six lowest. On Sunday, Mississippi State pulled down 17 offensive rebounds — the most a conference opponent has grabbed in a game against the Tigers this season. LSU did, however, allow Bulldogs to score only two points on the fast break, far fewer than it ceded to Oklahoma in the prior game. The Sooners scored 24 fast-break points, most of which they used to shave all but one point off the Tigers’ 24-point third-quarter lead. A press forced LSU into turnovers, and Oklahoma capitalized with easy buckets in transition. “I want to go watch film someday,” Mulkey said, “and we have not given up any transition layups or 3s, and when they scored, (say) ‘Man, they just had to work to score.’ ” Which means that the defensive improvements LSU can make now lie more in the finer details than they do in the bigger picture — a positive sign for the title-contending Tigers. ------------------------------ Another game another double digit SEC loss for the men's basketball team, this time by an 81-62 score at Georgia. TJ Brown has to keep writing about these Tigers, so please give a read to his fine words here. Finally, I've got a feature on Team Nussmeier, as Garrett's dad, former Saints quarterback Doug Nussmeier, goes for a rare quadruple of titles Sunday in Super Bowl LIX. That's all for today, folks. Thanks for reading and subscribing, and if you have a couple of Super Bowl suite tickets you'd like to share with me, I promise to bring the chips and dip. Scott Rabalais | 