New coach or not, LSU has a familiar quarterback duel to sort out when August practice begins for the Tigers.

But first-year head man Brian Kelly thinks those hand-wringers may be putting the cart before the plow horses up front.

“I’d  point to the offensive line,” Kelly said when discussing his prospects at SEC Media Days in Atlanta Monday. “We’ve got to bring that group together. I believe that the success of our football team will start and end with the offensive line and our ability to control the line of scrimmage.”

It’s a patchwork group at the moment, an area Kelly and the Tigers concentrated heavily on in the transfer portal to bolster.

“We’re young and inexperienced at that position. But I think we’ve added some really good transfers, and we think we’ve got some young men that have developed,” Kelly said.

Who’ll they’ll be protecting is anybody’s guess.

There could be as many as four candidates, Kelly said.

Veteran Myles Brennan was on campus before Heisman winner Joe Burrow arrived, but has started only four games due to freak injuries. Dual-threat transfer Jayden Daniels started three years at Arizona State. Redshirt freshman Garrett Nussmeier saw time last year and Kelly won’t rule out putting incoming freshman Walker Howard into the mix.

“There’s not a tactical advantage to who’s going to start at quarterback, so we’re not going to announce who it will be after three days (of practice,” Kelly said. “But it’s not an advantage to hold it back” once a decision is made.

The spring wasn’t really much help, somewhat by design, as Kelly was just trying to get his offense installed.

“It was installation,” he said. “It wasn’t setting the offense to any particular skill set of the quarterbacks.

“Once we start putting in things to fit the skill sets of the quarterbacks, that’s where some separation will start to show itself.”

The evaluation, he said, would hinge on three major factors.

“No. 1, they got to take care of the football,” said Kelly, who like most coaches, has a particular aversion to turnovers.

No. 2, they have to get the ball to the play-makers.

On a team with a lot of question marks, the wide receiver group is easily the strength of the team, led by Kayshon Boutte and a host of others.

“I have play-makers on offense that are already in place,” Kelly said. “They’ve got to get the ball to them.”

No. 3, “They’ve got to make plays that quarterbacks make,” he said.

That takes in more than just completing passes.

“That quarterback, the ultimate decision-making is on that quarterback.”

Somebody, he said, “will have to hit those three notes. I think all of these can do that. We’ll have to put them in that position so we can evaluate that.”