Five reasons Brian Kelly failed at LSU

Brian Kelly came to LSU in late 2021 with a clear and realistic purpose: to win a national championship.

His three predecessors as Tigers coach — Ed Orgeron, Les Miles and Nick Saban — all led LSU to titles by the end of their fourth full seasons on the job. Kelly had more impressive credentials than any — yes, even Saban — when he came to Baton Rouge, as the winningest coach in Notre Dame history, a two-time Division II national champion at Grand Valley State and a two-time AP National Coach of the Year.

Kelly brought his bold and brash style to the bayou and immediately had success, winning an SEC West Division title in his first season, and 10 games in each of his first two years. But he didn’t make the CFP in his first three seasons, and when his much-anticipated fourth veered after three losses in four games, LSU quickly pulled the plug.

A 49-25 home loss to Texas A&M in which the Tiger Stadium stands had emptied by the fourth quarter, followed by a contentious Sunday of meetings, led to Kelly’s ouster. He briefly addressed the team Sunday night, before driving away from the football operations building and Tiger Stadium for the last time.

How did it go so wrong so quickly for Kelly at LSU? He generated reactions from the moment he arrived, beginning with his “here with my fam-u-lee” speech at a Tigers basketball game. But whatever barbs came his way, Kelly still could stand on a track record of winning big … until he couldn’t.

ESPN reporters Mark Schlabach, Max Olson and Adam Rittenberg examined the reasons Kelly ultimately didn’t work out at LSU.

CEO approach not effective in hands-on SEC

Those who worked with Kelly at both Notre Dame and LSU described him as a true CEO-style head coach. He typically hired strong staffs, especially at Notre Dame with defensive coordinators Mike Elko, Clark Lea and Marcus Freeman — all in sequence — and let them do their work. Kelly always received outsized attention for his sideline reactions to bad moments, but few who have worked with him described him as overly mettlesome.

When Kelly entered his third decade as a head coach, he became less hands-on with the day-to-day operation, according to sources with knowledge of the program. Kelly operated the program somewhat from a distance, handling the media and the public-facing elements. “That’s his M.O.,” one former staff member said.

The approach ultimately cost him in a conference like the SEC, where head coaches don’t just oversee the operation, but recruit maniacally, interface regularly with everyone who touches their teams and grind until the wee hours of the morning just about year-round. There’s no letup in a conference with so many championship-minded programs, and Kelly fell behind.

A CEO approach can work at many programs, some of which will jump at the chance to hire a coach with Kelly’s credentials. But LSU ultimately needed a different style. — Rittenberg

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Couldn’t crack the coordinator code

Kelly never could find the right mix of coordinators, especially after offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock departed after the 2023 season to take the same position at Notre Dame. Denbrock helped quarterback Jayden Daniels win a Heisman Trophy in 2023, when the Tigers led the SEC in scoring with 45.5 points per game.

The only problem was that LSU’s defense, led by former Kansas City Chiefs linebackers coach Matt House, struggled to stop opponents. The Tigers went 10-3 in 2023, giving up 42 points or more in each of their three losses. They ranked next-to-last in the SEC in scoring defense (28 points) and run defense (161 yards).

Kelly fired House and three other defensive assistants after the 2023 season, and LSU plucked defensive coordinator Blake Baker from Missouri, giving him a three-year contract that made him the highest-paid assistant in the FBS at $2.5 million per season.

With the LSU defense seemingly in good hands, Kelly promoted quarterbacks coach Joe Sloan to co-offensive coordinator and playcaller. It proved to be a fatal mistake. The Tigers were last in the SEC in rushing (116.4 yards) in 2024, and were even worse this season, averaging 106.3 rushing yards and 25.5 points. Sloan was relieved of his coaching duties Monday, the school announced. — Schlabach

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Never seemed to fit in

There’s an old Cajun saying about family, “Tout le monde est cousin ic,” which means, “Everybody’s kin around here.” Unless you aren’t — and try too hard to prove you belong.

Kelly was a fantastic football coach at Grand Valley State, Cincinnati and Notre Dame. He went to LSU because he wanted to coach at a place that had the recruiting base, financial resources and football-crazed fans that would help him win a national title.

From his disastrous introductory speech at an LSU basketball game, in which he pronounced “family” with a fake Southern drawl that was thicker than roux, Kelly just never seemed to fit in.

And he wasn’t blind to that. This offseason, Kelly worked with a Washington, D.C.-based image consultant to try to improve his public persona.

The problem wasn’t that Kelly was from Massachusetts and had never coached at a school outside the Midwest. Saban was from West Virginia and had never worked at a school or NFL team in the Deep South before taking over LSU. But Saban was authentic and true to his roots and didn’t try to hide what he was — a demanding perfectionist who finally turned the Tigers into champions again after a title drought of 45 years.

On Saturday, Kelly even seemed to fall out of favor with Gov. Jeff Landry, who in the wake of the Texas A&M loss trolled LSU on social media about raising football ticket prices for 2026. Landry was then right in the middle of the discussions that led to the school separating from Kelly, according to a source close to the situation.

In the end, Kelly didn’t win enough and tried too hard to prove to LSU fans that he was one of them. — Schlabach/Rittenberg

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Portal haul raised expectations

LSU set out to build the best transfer portal class in college football this offseason, believing the roster was a few missing players away from title contention. After losing incoming freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood to Michigan, the coaching staff was determined to go out and win big in December when the portal opened.

One program source told ESPN in February they were confident LSU had assembled the No. 1 portal class in the country, and they saw little room for debate. “I don’t think it’s particularly close,” the source added. LSU asked top donors for seven-figure gifts to support this portal push. The Tigers went out and signed who they coveted. And then they started 5-3.

The moral of the story: If you’re shoving all-in and spending at an elite level in this new era, you better produce results.

LSU didn’t whiff on a much-hyped portal class that has yielded 11 new starters. Mansoor Delane is enjoying an All-America caliber season at cornerback, A.J. Haulcy has been one of the SEC’s top safeties and the Tigers’ efforts to overhaul their secondary have paid off. Defensive tackle Bernard Gooden has been a difference-maker up front when healthy.

Eight games in, though, most of these additions have been more solid than spectacular. Barion Brown and Nic Anderson were considered two of the top wide receivers in the portal but haven’t transformed LSU’s passing attack. Brown has a team-high 36 catches, but his 60 receiving yards against Texas A&M were his most against a Power 4 opponent this season. Anderson has 10 catches for 74 yards. The Tigers’ offensive line has struggled despite the additions of veteran starters Braelin Moore and Josh Thompson.

The larger point here is similar to what played out at Penn State: If you’re a head coach asking supporters to break the bank for a special season and underdeliver on the final product, they’ll turn on you quickly.

LSU wanted to compete with the best with an $18 million football roster after trailing behind many SEC peers in the NIL collective era. When you have a potential first-round pick at quarterback leading a roster full of blue-chip high school and portal talent, the reasonable expectation is College Football Playoff or bust. Kelly understood and embraced that going into 2025, but he couldn’t live up to it. — Olson

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The race for Lane Kiffin

Florida firing Billy Napier or Penn State dismissing James Franklin didn’t have much to do with LSU’s decision to cut ties with Kelly. It was a partnership that wasn’t working, and LSU’s influential decision-makers had seen enough.

Unless the Tigers are trying to jump to the front of the line for Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who has a 51-19 record in his sixth season with the Rebels.

But right now, Kiffin is in a great spot personally. His children and ex-wife are living in Oxford, Mississippi, and his brother, Chris, is his defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator for defense.

That said, can Kiffin win a national title at Ole Miss? He has relied heavily on the transfer portal in building his rosters the past couple of seasons, and that puts a lot of pressure on the coaching staff to continuously turn over a roster.

Taking a job like LSU would put Kiffin on equal playing ground with SEC powers Alabama, Georgia and Texas. He could build his roster through Louisiana’s fertile high school recruiting ground and supplement it with transfers to fill needs.

LSU is probably a better job than Florida for those reasons, and the Tigers aren’t having to battle in-state rivals for the best prospects. — Schlabach