Brian Kelly has been doing a number of interviews lately discussing his earth-shattering move from Notre Dame to LSU.
He played up the power of the tigers. Discuss the limitations of the Irish. Defended his timing for taking the job – he left ND while the team was still in the playoffs. He even tried to explain his pronunciation of “FAM-u-lee”.
He told Sports Illustrated that he always pronounces it that way, which isn’t actually true. But whatever. It does not matter. Of all the things to discuss when Kelly and LSU team up to win a national title, the so-called cultural fit will prove to be the least consequential.
First off, everyone in college football cares about winning. If Kelly leads the Tigers to a national title, or at least gets back in serious combat, Kelly will be celebrated across the state.
If he doesn’t do it, he won’t do it.
Whether he’s at home with a lobster cook or not doesn’t matter.
Brian Kelly speaks after being introduced as the head soccer coach of the LSU Tigers during a news conference in December (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
After all, LSU fired one of the most unique Louisiana coaches of all time, Ed Orgeron, just 19 months after he won a national title because the program was rapidly slipping. No Cajun charm, no serious accent, no tears about what the program means to fans could save him.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Aw, it’s going to be that Midwestern white guy going down there and it’s gonna be crazy!'” Kelly told SI. “The food has a little more spiciness, maybe a little more roux than I’m used to, but it wasn’t really an adjustment that I felt was really outside of my comfort zone.”
The man is in Baton Rouge to train, not cook.
And Brian Kelly can coach.
Is it enough to become the fourth LSU coach to win a national title since 2003, alongside Nick Saban, Les Miles and Coach O? That’s a topic in the latest issue of the College Football Enquirer.
Kelly maybe. Last but not least, he has proven to be a much better coach and program leader than Miles and Orgeron. Saban, who rebuilt the program, is of course a different level.
The story goes on
Kelly won two Division II national championships at Grand Valley State (Michigan), won a title at the Mid-American Conference in Central Michigan, and won 34-6 at Cincinnati, including a 12-0 season. You don’t do all this by chance, luck or just because you have acquired talent.
At Notre Dame, he is the most successful coach in program history and has guided the Irish to a BCS title game and two playoffs. They weren’t competitive at that level, but there haven’t been too many programs that are competitive with Alabama and Clemson.
Kelly isn’t known as a top recruiter — or as a charismatic personality in almost every setting. However, he was good enough to enhance Notre Dame’s talent, transforming it from a forever hyped program to a top 10 program.
Kelly is counting on LSU’s institutional power to overcome this. Despite arriving just days before the early signing deadline last December, Kelly signed two five-star recruits from Rivals.com in the class of 2022. That’s the same amount as in his last five recruiting classes for Notre Dame.
In the Class of 2023, 11 of the top 100 recruits nationwide are from Louisiana, according to Rivals.com. That’s about right for the course.
For many years, LSU will get most of these guys. Maybe all. Kelly even focuses on working in the northern part of the state — where great linemen tend to hail but are less attached to the Tigers — to shore up a rare weakness.
After that, he said they will focus on Houston, East Texas, Atlanta, Florida and some national recruits (where Kelly has many contacts) as needed. LSU always has talent. Kelly will get his.
Any recruit who makes a college pick based on the head coach’s gumbo recipe (or lack thereof for the Massachusetts native) is probably not worth much anyway. It’s not that Saban is known for being a charmer, and he’s the one who’s best at swiping prospects across the state line.
This is a deal. It’s always a deal. LSU didn’t hesitate to fire a coach who was a perfect cultural fit for spending almost $100 million on a slightly awkward guy who just wins games.
So Brian Kelly has to win games. If he delivers, he will be loved. If not, he will be fired like Orgeron and Miles.
That’s all that counts. This is college football, after all.