NEWSLETTER
The coaching carousel is wilding the heck out right now.
And while the game of musical chair always has a surprise or two, I don’t think anyone saw this coming:
Sources: LSU is expecting to hire Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly as the school’s next head coach. An announcement could come as early as tomorrow.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 30, 2021
Yahoo! Sports reporter Pete Thamel hears LSU is on the cusp of pulling off quite the coup in hiring Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame.
That sentence – in isolation – is absolutely bonkers.
Kelly, 60, has been coaching at Notre Dame since the 2010 season and has put up a 92-39 record at the university. He has taken the team to 11 bowl games and two appearances in the College Football Playoffs. Notre Dame, and its 10-1 record, was sixth in the most recent College Football Playoff rankings. In other words, if Thamel’s reporting is on the nose, then a possible CFP contender could go into a playoff game with an interim head coach. That would be absolutely wild, and soooooo spot on the nose for college football.
Nothing is set in stone. And certainly, nothing is officially official at this point. But that this possibility is even being spoken is absurd. I mean, as recently as one week ago, Kelly was shooting down rumors he would leave for the USC job (which, by the way, went to former Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley) :
Just 7 days ago Brian Kelly was asked if he would ever leave Notre Dame aside from retirement.
Here's what he said. On to LSU pic.twitter.com/pnJj9vFxJC
— Rick Tarsitano (@RickTarsitano) November 30, 2021
This quote came after a line of questioning about rumors suggesting USC should look at Brian Kelly, which Kelly called "smokescreens," saying folks throw names out there so that other folks don't look where they're supposed to look.
— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) November 22, 2021
What an evergreen sentiment that second tweet will turn out to be if Kelly does indeed bolt for LSU.
Here I am sitting here convinced Kelly would stick around at ND for a while. After all, he hadn’t been seen as a realistic option for a number of college jobs. And while he reportedly interviewed for the Chicago Bears head coaching vacancy in 2018, we know nothing came of that. Instead, it looks like all signs are pointing toward Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In other words, if you’re a fan of a team whose coach might be on the way out the door (ahem!), be ready to hear any number of different names connected as a candidate. The possibilities truly seem limitless at this stage of the game.
