BATON ROUGE — Maybe LSU’s Brian Kelly was just losing another battle with the Southern language again.

The South Louisiana sun and heat, let alone the humidity, was also a hot topic— very hot —following the Tigers’ 34-17 victory over UCLA.

The Tigers, a little over a three-touchdown favorite coming in for this one, haven’t played up to Las Vegas’ expectations yet in four games. But it was a win, so to speak, which is kind of the point.

Anyhow, what Kelly said was confusing after a sweat-friendly day that had fans on the east side stands staggering out, gasping and seeking shade like sunburned zombies.

So let’s cue to Kelly:

On the one hand, he said,  “There’s nobody’s getting traded. These are the guys we’re going to work it.”

Translation: The Tigers are what they are.

On the other hand, he added, “There’s enough talent out here to contend for an SEC championship.”

Question: In what SEC, in which  football universe?

Perhaps he needed to hydrate better.

Or maybe his team can suddenly start playing like true Southeastern Conference contenders.

It hasn’t really happened yet.

The Tigers, after opening with a frustrating loss to Southern Cal,  had their third of four relative tune-ups with a below-average UCLA team. South Alabama, which may be a challenge for the Tigers’ defense, visits LSU this week. Then the real SEC schedule begins.

Right now, for the league they play in and with their fans’ usual expectations as the grading curve, the Tigers look like an average team.

Their 3-1 record seems to carry an asterisk for each win.

Win No. 1 was FCS Nicholls State, which had no business hanging around as long as the Colonels did.

Win No. 2 was South Carolina, which once led 17-0 and the Gamecocks had to miss (through no fault of LSU) a very makable field goal for the Tigers to hang on.

Win No. 3 against UCLA was more of the same.

This was a game against a struggling brand name, an opponent where the Tigers were  supposed to step up, build on that comeback from the previous week and declare themselves . “in” for the travails ahead.

“We’re not there yet,” Kelly admitted afterwards.

Sure, there were bright spots (other than the melting sun) in Saturday’s game.

The 17-17 tie at halftime was a good excuse for many LSU fans to get out of the oven — and about half the original crowd seemed to go with that option. A few who dared take a deep breath of that soup, even booed.

As we say in these parts, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” At halftime, you could add humility to LSU’s list after a lackluster opening 30 minutes.

True, the final scoreboard didn’t look so mediocre after the Tigers dominated the second half — 244-64 in yards, 17-zip in points — and the Tigers had seemed to be somewhat in control in the first.

Kelly proved to be quite the LSU historian when, with no teleprompter, he pointed out that it was first time in over 20 years that the Tigers had fashioned two 90-yard-plus scoring drives in a single game — back-to-back marches of 96 yards (14 plays) and 92 yards (11 plays).

Sounds good, even for a defense that still has a way to go — the defensive front had five sacks for the second straight game Saturday, but also too many relapses of secondary busts.

“It’s just maddening some of the silly mistakes we’re making on defense,” Kelly said. “That just has to go away.”

For that matter, UCLA would be excused if it wilted in the second half. It was the kind of day you order up — think of lava gurgling down the side of a volcano— when inviting teams from more temperate climes.

At kickoff, where the Bruins come from, it was 71 degrees with virtually no humidity out there in the Rose Bowl. At Tiger Stadium it was 97 degrees and —with the suffocating humidity and no cloud cover to speak of — the true temperature, the comfort level was adjusted to more like, oh, bacon frying or crawfish boiling.

It was challenge even for the  natives of these bayous.

Many of the few fans who sweltered out the entire afternoon came away looking and feeling like grilled sausages. More than a handful had to be treated by paramedics — “Might want to flip that one over, he looks done on that side.”

Not much LSU can do about that. Even the Tigers hate to play September games in the afternoon.

But TV makes that decision and rarely is the comfort level of on-site fans a consideration.

Kelly joked that the media needs to lobby LSU for a retractable roof over Tiger Stadium.

That may be beyond even LSU’s budget.

In the meantime, Kelly said, “We’ve got to clean up the little mistakes.”

In the end, the Tigers survived to get another shot at that. Maybe there are things they can build on to look like a true contender.

But that wasn’t the overriding memory most fans came away with this game.

Did I mention — not to beat a dead horse or anything — that it was rather warm?