I find it amusing that a college football coach can be fired for going 34-14. I find it equally amusing that a college football coach thinks they’re exempt from being fired for having a winning record. In a perfect world, a head coach would not lose their job for winning ball games and going to a bowl game every year, but this is not a perfect world, and any coach can be fired on any given day.
Which brings me to Brian Kelly, former head coach of the LSU Tigers. As I mentioned, Kelly went 34-14 overall, with a 19-10 SEC record. That’s pretty good considering he was a head coach at a top ten college football program. Alas, that record is not good enough for LSU. In my lifetime, LSU has won three national championships – 2003, 2007, and 2019. They have also won five SEC conference championships this century – 2001, 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2019. This is the standard at LSU, and Brian Kelly knew that when he accepted the job.
So, how did Kelly get this job to begin with? He has a good resume, for starters. Let’s take a look at Brian Kelly’s coaching history:
Grand Valley State (Division II) – Record 118-35-2
Central Michigan – Record 19-16
Cincinnati – Record 34-6
Notre Dame – Record 92-39
Looking at his resume, you see why he was appealing to LSU, especially his record at Notre Dame. If you can win at a school with as much tradition as they do in South Bend, surely that would carry over to a blueblood program like LSU…so they thought.
Kelly’s reputation for being an aggressive recruiter was indeed appealing to Athletic Director Scott Woodward, who hired Kelly in November 2021. To get players to come to South Bend, Indiana, is no easy feat; it gets cold in the Midwest, and there is a lot of snow. So, you have to recruit nationally, and Kelly did that, getting some great players. For example, five-star defensive lineman Stephen Tuitt from Monroe, Ga., was a dominant force for the Irish in Kelly’s early years in South Bend. And don’t forget Ronnie Stanley out of Las Vegas. He had a few injuries while at Notre Dame, but still had a great four years and went on to the NFL.
For Kelly, LSU was a great fit- the school’s prestigious history, the rivalries in the SEC, the rich pool of talent in the state of Louisiana, etc. Kelly knew he had peaked at Notre Dame. Once they were thrashed by Alabama in the 2013 National Championship game, he knew he would never win a championship in South Bend – that was his mindset. So, the move to Baton Rouge was a no-brainer.
At first, it was a match made in Cajun Heaven. In Kelly’s first year, the Tigers went 10-2, with an overtime win against Alabama, and wins on the road against Florida and Auburn, and a SEC championship appearance. In 2023, the season starts and ends just about the same as his first season, going 10-2 and winning a New Year’s bowl game against Wisconsin. It starts to go south the next season, in 2024. Kelly’s team loses their third straight home opener. In mid-season, they lost three games in a row – Alabama, Texas A&M, and Florida, and no SEC championship game or playoff. Fast forward to this season, the Tigers open with a win on the road at Clemson, but the win loses its shine thanks to Dabo and his team having one of their worst seasons since 1998. Next, you lose a close game to Ole Miss and get slapped by Vandy on the road, handing LSU their first loss to the Commodores since 1990!
However, the straw that broke the camel’s back took place last Saturday. Texas A&M came into Tiger Stadium, the single hardest place to play for any opponent, and beat LSU like a rag doll. Never in my lifetime have I seen LSU get beaten in every facet of the game like they were on Saturday. The Aggies won that game 49-25. Grant it, the Aggies are the #3 team in the nation, but LSU is a tough out at night. The atmosphere is electric. Just ask Nick Saban, who would be the first to tell you beating LSU at home under the lights might be one of the toughest things you can do in college football.
On Sunday, Brian Kelly was fired from LSU. Whether it was the loss to A&M, not meeting preseason expectations, or failure to have his team prepared, the Brian Kelly tenure has come to an end in Baton Rouge.
He also has a 54-million-dollar buyout, which is still being worked on.
To Kelly’s credit, he said and did all the right things when he arrived- he even did his best Cajun accent when introduced as the head coach at a tiger basketball game( the video will make you cringe).
But Kelly’s on-and-off tantrums, the way he threw his players and coaches under the bus, and his Type A persona were not good fits for LSU. And, at the end of the day, it’s about wins and losses. The wins were there, but unlike his Cajun accent, they just weren’t impressive.
