It’s only a matter of time before Brian Kelly wins the SEC at LSU. That was his attitude at SEC Media Days on Monday in Nashville.

The team to beat? Last year he was asked about Alabama. This year it was Georgia, of course.

“I know that based upon how we’ve recruited and how we’ll continue to recruit that we’ll have a football roster that will be able to compete against Georgia,” Kelly said. “Is that right now? No, it’s not. But if we continue to do what we’re doing, we’re going to have a roster that can compete against Georgia, and then it’s just a matter of getting it done on the playing field so everybody then can assess they’ve closed the gap.”

Kelly and LSU were afterthoughts this time last year. The Tigers’ first-year coach was a walking internet meme, a punchline to jokes about fake Southern accents. Then what happened? No one’s laughing anymore. LSU improved more than any other team in the SEC over the course of the season and by the time Alabama traveled down to Baton Rouge the only gap between LSU and the Crimson Tide was the home team’s preparation for overtime.

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Saban was embarrassed by the way his team played that night. LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels threw two touchdown passes in the victory compared to one for Alabama’s Bryce Young, the future first overall pick in the NFL Draft.

Daniels is back for the Tigers. Saban is going into fall camp without a clear leader at the quarterback position. Gotta ask the question. If Georgia represents the source of LSU’s ambition, does that mean Kelly has already surpassed Alabama’s Nick Saban?

Entering the 2023 season, with so much changing throughout the SEC and college football, something keeps buzzing in my ear like the annoying presence of Kid Rock here in Nashville. The end could be coming for Saban at Alabama faster than anyone thinks.

If Saban loses to LSU and Kelly two years in a row, and fails once again to make the SEC championship game, then I wouldn’t be surprised Alabama’s coach retires before all the big changes hit college football in 2024. Alabama plays LSU in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Nov.4. Keep that one circled on the calendar because it’s more important to Alabama’s immediate future than the glamor game against Texas in Week 2.

Saban speaks on Wednesday at SEC Media Days. Auburn’s Hugh Freeze makes his return to talking season on Tuesday. SEC Media Days has transformed over the years. It’s all so corporate now, so polished. This event used to be attached to a mall in Hoover, Alabama. This week it’s in the middle of a construction zone in one of America’s fast-growing cities … and there was a concert scheduled for Monday night on Broadway to kick everything off.

Next year, when Texas and Oklahoma join the league, SEC Media Days will be held in downtown Dallas.

I miss the old SEC, but I’m excited about the new. The old SEC was Johnny Cash. The new SEC is Taylor Swift. The future SEC? Let’s just hope it’s not Luke Bryan. Not that I know anything about Bryan. I’m sure he’s fine. I was just told by people who know about these sorts of things that Bryan’s style of country music has a lot in common with Brian Kelly’s Southern accent.

“I think my accent is pretty good and has gotten better throughout the recruiting process,” Kelly joked on Monday. “It depends on if I’m in northern Louisiana or southern Louisiana. Sometimes I get over to Lake Charles, and it’s got to change a little bit.”

Kelly spoke first this week in Nashville. I was impressed by his confidence compared to last year at SEC Media Days in Atlanta. Kelly still acknowledged Alabama as one of the standard bearers in the league, but not with the same reverence.

“Where we are in Year Two is that we have a football team that’s coming,” Kelly said. “They’re moving in the right direction. We still have some weaknesses that we’re working on. We still have some roster development that still needs to take place.

“I think the exciting part is keeping your staff together, and the continuity of our staff with our coordinators and leadership is in place. That will make for seamless communication as it relates to our day-to-day.”

Shot at Saban’s turnover at Alabama? Maybe so. Saban hit the reset button on his assistant coaches after last season’s troubling trends. Here’s the thing about that. Saban went out and hired Kelly’s old offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, Tommy Rees, … and THEN Saban went in the transfer portal and grabbed one of Kelly’s old Notre Dame quarterbacks, Tyler Buchner.

Alabama plans on getting revenge against LSU with Kelly’s old Notre Dame offense? Didn’t see that one coming.

Everything is changing in college football. That’s one of the big themes this week. There are going to be winners of this new world, and there are going to be losers. LSU is about to be centrally located in the middle of a new SEC map that’s more competitively balanced than ever. Not to take anything away from Alabama and Auburn, but if Georgia was the SEC’s sleeping giant then LSU is starting to look a lot like the league’s emerging swamp monster.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.