The question was simple: What’s it mean to you and this program to beat Alabama in Year 1?

Brian Kelly made it a point when he first took the LSU job that he wanted to play – and beat – the best. That, of course, includes Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. Still, there couldn’t have been many who thought that goal would be accomplished so quickly.

In November, 15th-ranked LSU upset No. 6 Alabama 32-31 in overtime.

“I came down here because I wanted to play the best, and I consider, and many consider, Nick Saban as an icon and somebody that you measure yourself against,” Kelly told USA Today Network. “I know it’s not MMA. …

“I don’t think anybody would have paid for it, and so I’m not trying to say it’s MMA, but you want to be measured against the best.

“I just have a great deal of respect for Nick. So, that was awesome that we got a chance to play a great football game that could have went either way. It gave our guys a lot of confidence.”

Alabama (7-2, 4-2) began overtime with the ball and took a 31-24 lead on Roydell Williams’ second touchdown of the game.

But quarterback Jayden Daniels needed one play in overtime to score and force a decision by Kelly to try to tie it with a kick or let the Arizona State transfer try to win it.

The winning play began with Daniels rolling right before throwing to Mason Taylor along the goal line. Taylor was tackled at the pylon but with the ball narrowly across the goal line.

Here’s what Kelly said about the play:

“A lot of those decisions that are emotional decisions, earlier in my career, I had a hard time making them. Sometimes, for the wrong reasons, I even went for 2 or kicked the extra point and should have went for 2. So, we have meetings 48 hours prior. We call them 48 Hours, where we discuss those things as a staff, away from the emotions, and we discussed that. We said, ‘Hey, listen, if we have a shot to win the game, are we kicking it, or are we going for 2?’

“Generally, as you know, if the emotions are out of it, and everybody is in there, and you go, ‘Hey, what do you want to do? Do you want to kick it, or do you want to go for 2?’ Everybody wants to go for 2.

“Of course, as you can imagine, when I said during the game, ‘We’re going for 2,’ everyone was like, ‘No, (expletive), what are you talking about? Kick the (expletive) extra point!’”

Kelly said he had to remind his coaching staff the decision had been made prior to the actual game.

“Oh, yeah. And I’m like, ‘No, we made this decision already. We’re going for 2.’ What it allows you to do, when you make that decision on Thursday, Thursday’s practice and Friday’s practice, you practice the same play like 20 times. So, I was like, ‘We’re running it. Call Snake. We’re running it. That’s the play we practiced. Run the damn play.’”

Check out the full Q&A.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.