CBS Sports’ Brian Kelly ‘had a hard time watching’ LSU’s win over Clemson

This is the first college football season that Brian Kelly hasn’t worked as a coach since 1983. It’s also the first since his four-year stint as head coach of the LSU Tigers.

It’s going to take a little more time before the now-CBS Sports analyst can enjoy watching a game from home.

“I’ll be honest, I had a hard time watching it,” Kelly admitted on “SiriusXM College Sports Radio.” “But I don’t think it was just LSU; it was just the first weekend truly of college football, and it was hard.

“You’ve been doing it for 35 years, and not to be part of that process – my wife, she wanted to kill me. She was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ What was wrong was that I wasn’t on the sidelines, and I had to deal with it and get through it.”

That said, Kelly did pay attention to what the Tigers accomplished in their 51-10 dismantling of the Clemson Tigers, and came away impressed. Though he can’t help but temper expectations, as any coach would.

“There’s no mistaking it, LSU looked great,” Kelly added. “Obviously, it’s a little bit of both – was Clemson maybe not as good as we thought? And certainly LSU was on fire, and that showed in the game.

“But … it’s one game. Let’s see what this looks like throughout the entire year. Can they keep the same energy? But they looked really good.”

Kelly probably won’t have a chance to watch LSU try to improve to 2-0 against Louisiana Tech on Saturday either. He’ll be on the call for No. 13 Texas Tech at Oregon State alongside Rich Waltz and Adam Breneman.