Why did Brian Kelly leave Notre Dame? LSU reported the hiring of Fighting Irish coach to the SEC
Current Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly’s Name Has Been Tossed To Fill LSU Coaching Position Next Fall, source told The Athletic.
Indeed, much report said the Tigers will announce Kelly as their next head coach as early as Tuesday,
The news dropped Monday night after sources suggested that LSU was making an “active effort” to hire Kelly. LSU Fires Former Coach Ed Orgeron in October. He won’t be training in the Tigers’ stalemate.
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Kelly, on the other hand, became the most winning coach in Notre Dame’s history this season. Kelly has coached at Notre Dame since 2010, and he’s already made it to the College Soccer League twice and could add one more this year (if he continues through the rest of the season) .
LSU’s three previous coaches, Orgeron, Les Miles, and Nick Saban, have all won national titles for the school. So the stakes are very high. Kelly did not win a national title at Notre Dame.
With that, here’s everything you need to know about Kelly reportedly jumping from Notre Dame to LSU:
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Why did Brian Kelly come to LSU?
Kelly’s move from Notre Dame to LSU has to do with one thing: challenging for the national championship. More specifically, it involves improving hiring. That seems counter-intuitive when Kelly has seven wins of 10 or more with the Fighting Irish, including five in a row. They have also twice reached the College Football knockout round, in 2018 and ’20, before that they competed in the 2013 BCS Championship match.
But Fighting Irish has been dealt with in each of those appearances, losing to Alabama (2012 and 2020) and Clemson (2018) by a combined score of 103-31 – averaging 24 points per game. They haven’t won the equivalent of a New Year’s Day 6-six game since Cotton Bowl’s 24-21 win over Texas A&M on January 1, 1994.
More than that, Kelly is 1-8 ahead of top 10 opponents since arriving at Notre Dame in 2010, and 3-9 ahead of top 10 opponents.
At LSU, Kelly will have access to Louisiana’s extensive recruiting facilities, which produce some of the nation’s top talent every year. Kelly is no stranger to recruiting, having produced a class of 20 in every season since he took over Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2010. But, in that time, LSU has been on the better side. him in all but one year.
It may be tougher for Kelly in the SEC – where he’ll have to play Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Oklahoma and Texas, among others – but with the expansion of the College Rugby Round, it opens the door for Kelly to be able to get LSU into the 12-team knockout more often than not.
Kelly contacted the Notre Dame team on Monday night following the breaking news. Here is the full message:
Brian Kelly’s record at Notre Dame
Kelly became Notre Dame’s winning coach after picking up her 106th win on September 25, surpassing Knute Rockne’s record of 105 wins. His overall record at Notre Dame was 113-40.
Notre Dame ended the 2021 season with an 11-1 record. This is his seventh season with 10 or more wins.
| Year | Take note | Final Ranking (AP) | Result bowl |
| 2010 | 8-5 | – | Sun Bowl (win) |
| 2011 | 8-5 | – | Champs Sports Bowl (lost) |
| 2012 | 12-1 | 4 | BCS Championship (lost) |
| two thousand and thirteen | 9-4 | 20 | Pinstripe Bowl (win) |
| 2014 | 8-5 | – | Music City Bowl (win) |
| 2015 | 10-3 | 11 | Fiesta Bowl (lose) |
| 2016 | 4-8 | – | – |
| 2017 | 10-3 | 11 | Citrus Bowl (win) |
| 2018 | 12-1 | 5 | Cotton bowl (loss) |
| 2019 | 11-2 | twelfth | Camping World Bowl (win) |
| Year 2020 | 10-2 | 5 | Rose Bowl Semifinals (lose) |
| Year 2021 | 11-1 | 5 (current) | TBD |
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Brian Kelly contract details
The Athletic reported that LSU is offering Kelly a 10-year contract worth about $100 million and it includes incentives. CBS Sports reported that Kelly’s contract would be about $15 million a year, meaning his entire contract was worth $115 million. The exact amount remains to be determined.
Kelly signed a contract extension in 2020, according to Sports Illustrated, currently believed to be at $2.67 million per year. Since Notre Dame is a private school, the details of his contract are not made public. With the extension, he is expected to coach at Notre Dame through the 2024 season, marking his 15th season in South Bend, India. He will be 63 years old when his contract expires.
Kelly doesn’t earn as much as his fellow coaches in college football (Saban makes about $9.7 million per season in Alabama, for example). Seven coaches make more than $7 million, 21 make at least $5 million, and another 37 make around $4 million. The 50 highest paid coaches make at least $3 million. So assuming the details of Kelly’s current contract are correct, he simply omitted that list.
Who replaced Kelly at Notre Dame?
Notre Dame is in a position to hire several active – and inactive – coaches of college football, should Kelly leave the program. Chief among them is current Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell, who led the Bearcats to a 47-14 record in five seasons, including three seasons with at least 11 wins in 2018, ’19 and ’21. If he replaces Kelly, he will become the second coach to leave the show for Notre Dame (the first being Kelly).
Another potential coach is the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Urban Meyer. Meyer – a devout Catholic – who served as a receiver coach for the show from 1996-2000 before taking his first head coach job at Bowling Green – described the opening as his “dream job”. He is currently 2-9 and in last place in the AFC South in his first year as an NFL coach.
Zac Al-Khateeb contributed to this report.
