Former college football head coach Brian Kelly offered up big praise for Lane Kiffin's LSU team.

Watching a former team thrive under new leadership is an awkward assignment for a coach who's out of work. Doing it on live radio, less than a year after being fired, is harder still. That's the spot former LSU head coach Brian Kelly found himself in this week, after the Tigers opened the Lane Kiffin era by dismantling Clemson 51-10 in Baton Rouge. Kelly, now a CBS Sports college football analyst, didn't soften what he saw. He said the defense he helped build alongside defensive coordinator Blake Baker during his four years there looks good enough to win a national title.

From the source “Geaux Tigers. 1-0 baby.” @LSUfootball Blake Baker #LSU

The praise pointed straight at defensive coordinator Blake Baker, whom Kelly hired away from Missouri in December 2024.

"I thought their defense looked every bit as a national championship defense, in the pieces that he has," Kelly said on "The Early Read" with Danny Kanell and Roy Philpott on SiriusXM. "And I know Blake. I hired Blake Baker, the defensive coordinator."

Clemson finished the night with 145 total yards and just 40 on the ground. The visitors converted one of 13 third downs and went three-and-out seven times. Defensive end Jordan Ross, a Tennessee transfer, returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week.

Baker nearly left Baton Rouge. He interviewed at Tulane and Memphis last December before Kiffin handed him a three-year deal worth $9.3 million to stay.

The other thing the former Notre Dame head coach noticed was the run game, the same part of the offense that collapsed on him a year ago.

"What I walk away from in watching the game is some of the things that I struggled with in the last year, that we did not run the ball efficiently," Kelly said. "I thought they ran the ball extremely well."

LSU averaged 106.2 rushing yards per game in 2025, last in the SEC. Against Clemson, the Tigers piled up 309 yards on the ground. Quarterback Sam Leavitt, an Arizona State transfer, ran for 113 yards and two scores. Running back Dilin Jones, who came over from Wisconsin, matched him with 113 yards and two touchdowns of his own.

"If you have a great defense and you can run the football, everybody's working on the other pieces," Kelly said. "Nobody's a complete football team."

AP voters moved the Tigers from No. 11 to No. 8 in the poll released Sept. 8. Louisiana Tech visits LSU on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network+, and the Bulldogs come in 1-0 after hanging 80 points on Northwestern State. A week after that, Kiffin takes his team to Oxford to face Ole Miss, the program he left in December.

Baker turned down his alma mater to be part of this.

"I truly believe with what he does on offense and what we do on defense, the ultimate goal is to bring a national championship to LSU," Baker said.

Kelly admitted the opener was tough to sit through. "I'll be honest, I had a hard time watching it," he said. "You've been doing it for 35 years, and not to be part of that process." LSU still owes him most of a buyout that topped $50 million, and his CBS Sports paycheck offsets only a small piece of it.