Normally, you would expect that a first-year SEC coach would fall near the bottom of any preseason coaching rankings list.
This is the most difficult league in the country, and it chews up and spits out more coaches than you can count. The average coach generally faces a significant learning curve.
But [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] is not your average first-year SEC coach. With a head coaching career spanning decades, Kelly is the third-winningest active coach in the FBS. He came to LSU to win a national title, and he’s proven that he’s one of the best coaches in the country.
That’s why in these recent SEC coaching rankings from On3’s Jesse Simonton, Kelly ranked third — just behind [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag] and [autotag]Kirby Smart[/autotag] while sitting one spot ahead of a national championship-winning coach in [autotag]Jimbo Fisher[/autotag].
Here’s Simonton’s take.
Considering just four active head coaches in all of college football have a national championship on their resume, it may seem blasphemous to slot Kelly ahead of Fisher, but this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately set of rankings. Kelly bolted South Bend for Baton Rouge for a better chance to win his own ring, but he did win at least 10 games the last five years with the Irish — something Fisher hasn’t done once yet with the Aggies. Kelly does enter Year 1 with the Tigers in an interesting spot, though, as the talk of titles (re: the reasoning he left Notre Dame) has overshadowed LSU’s actual expectations in 2022.
Kelly certainly orchestrated an impressive run over the last few years in South Bend, and now that he’s inheriting a program with a wider talent pool to choose from, it’s natural that expectations are high.
The Tigers may have some growing pains in Year 1, but they should have a coach who is well equipped to manage those challenges.
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