NEW ORLEANS — Sifting through the debris of Brian Kelly’s LSU coaching debut and, well, where to start?

Disappointing. Undisciplined. Disconcerting. Hard to watch.

Awful. Eye-opening eye sore. More work to be done than anyone imagined.

And it won’t be as easy as Kelly snapping his fingers on a culture change. That was probably wishful thinking at its worst.

It’s easy to overreact to season openers. But this was the stark realization that this is no quick fixer-upper Kelly is dealing with. This complete overhaul may take some time.

It was, in a word, flat-out ugly.

You can be as “accountable” as you please.

But LSU lost 24-23 Sunday night because the Tigers couldn’t block on offense, had trouble tackling on defense and seemed to step in something untoward every time a call went out for special teams.

And, as Kelly readily admitted, they were out-coached.

Not by much, actually.

But it was a bar set low for two staffs that won’t be saving much of the tactical game film for their next coaching clinic.

Mike Norvell and the FSU staff certainly did the better advance planning. Even without any film of the Kelly-debuting Tigers, they had he far better plan, out-schemed LSU most of the night on both sides of the ball. They kept the Tigers’ defense off balance (especially on third down) and over-loaded an over-matched offense.

But once the game started, when the sideline braintrusts got involved in real time, it was pretty even. Head-scratching all around, but even. The victory was a hot potato that both coaches kept tossing back and forth at each other in comical fashion.

The only thing missing was whoopie cushions and hand-shake buzzers.

LSU kept handing the game to the Seminoles — fumbling it to them mostly — and FSU kept saying, no-no-no you take it back, be my guest.

Hijinks all around.

So it all came to a head with a confusing ending, where a replay review left LSU with a gift-wrapped untimed down from the 2-yard line, down by 7, final play of the game.

It was the kind of gift Les Miles used to get in the Lucky Les salad days when he could do no wrong.

So, wonder of wonders, quarterback Jayden Daniels connected with Jaray Jenkins in the back of the end zone and …

I just assumed that LSU would go for two there.

Kelly did think about it — “for a slight moment,” he said.

It’s a no-brainer. He should have given that slight moment one more second thought and picked the Seminoles’ pockets.

There’s an old adage in coaching that when you have a chance to commit highway robbery on one play, you take that one shot and giggle all the way to the bank.

One play. Win or lose the game. Win a game you should have lost by two or three touchdowns.

Or you go to overtime, where the odds shift back to the team that should have won handily in regulation?

It turned out to be neither after the extra point was blocked, of course, but that’s irrelevant.

LSU should have taken that shot. The Seminoles might never have lived it down.

But that’s one decision.

The second-guessing should date back to August.

It’s easy to see how Daniels won the quarterback job over Garrett Nussmeier.

Putting a more stationary target behind this LSU offensive line would be football suicide, bordering on cruel and unusual punishment.

Up front the Tigers were what we feared they’d be with a makeshift offensive that Kelly pieced together as best he could..

They were over-matched.

So LSU was reduced to playing a sandlot offense.

That might not change anytime soon. It might be a pipe dream to think this offensive line gels overnight.

But what coaching genius decided that a waterbug like Daniels would be best-served with straight drop-back passing plays?

He’s probably going to end up running for his life anyway, why not give him some roll-outs and misdirection to at least get a head start.

Or just take solace that maybe Sunday was as bad as it gets.

“We can’t play any worse than that,” Kelly said at halftime. “I don’t think we can. It’s my first game. Maybe we can.”

Keep in mind, Kelly is still new to Louisiana, where a tenet we hold dear is “Yeah? Hold my beer …”

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com