The 2024 season hasn’t turned out the way LSU planned.
Barely qualifying for a bowl game. Missing the SEC championship and the 12-team College Football Playoff. Losing the No. 1 overall prospect who was slated to be the future at the quarterback position.
Is Brian Kelly further from winning a title at LSU than he was at Notre Dame? The Athletic’s Ralph D. Russo and Bruce Feldman set out to answer that question.
The pair pointed to heated sideline interactions between Kelly and multiple players along with the snap of his 10-win seasons that ran for seven straight years.
While several staffers commented on the state of the program under Kelly on the condition of anonymity, one former Tiger who played under the fourth-year head coach spoke candidly about his experiences.
Charles Turner’s first season in Baton Rouge happened to be the Tigers’ national championship-winning season in 2019. He was the team’s starting center for 2022 and ’23 though he hardly had any personal interactions with Kelly through those two years.
Turner told Feldman and Russo that Kelly’s culture standards included a system to schedule meetings, contrary to former LSU coach Ed Orgeron’s open-door policy, according to Turner.
“When I started playing for Kelly the last two years, I didn’t talk to him,” Turner said. “I started every game for him. Just, ‘Hey, hi. How you doing?’ And that was it. We never talked Xs and Os. I never sat in his office and got personal with him. He really never got to know me.”
While Turner expressed hopefulness that Kelly turns the program around, he admitted Kelly “might not be the best fit” for LSU.
Sources close to the program expressed concerns about Kelly’s abilities to recruit in the SEC, citing the importance of being “hands-on and immersed” in the process.
Though LSU found success in the transfer portal in the form of Heisman winner Jayden Daniels, Kelly pointed to an enhanced strategy to attract established top talents in college football.
“We want to engage, build relationships,” Kelly said. “We want to develop, retain, and have success. We’re not in the market of buying players and unfortunately, right now, that’s what some guys are looking for. They want to be bought.”
Kelly won’t be going anywhere soon, thanks to a 10-year guaranteed contract with a current $64.5 million buyout that decreases by $9.5 million annually.
However, the head coach’s strong relationship with athletic director Scott Woodward signals trust and an aligned vision for the future of the Tigers’ championship hopes.