LSU football head coach Brian Kelly needs to hire an assistant.
On Wednesday, it was reported that special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Slade Nagle was the offensive coordinator job at Houston, leaving LSU with an opening on staff.
It’s that time of year. With the coaching carousel moving, there will be assistant shuffling too. It’s unclear if Kelly plans to make any of his own adjustments to the staff, but we know it will look at least a little different in 2025.
Nagle spent one year at LSU after working a lengthy stint at Tulane. Accepting the job at Houston reunites him with head coach Willie Fritz after the two had plenty of success in New Orleans.
Not every coaching staff has a special teams coordinator or coaching staff. However, as long as Kelly is at LSU, I’d expect the Tigers to employ a tight ends coach. It’s a position Kelly places a lot of value on.
Here are 12 names to know as LSU searches for Nagle’s replacement.
Tommy Rees
When a job on Brian Kelly’s staff opens, Rees is always a name to know. The two go back to Rees’ playing days at Notre Dame and he was an OC candidate when Kelly arrived at LSU.
Rees is currently with the Cleveland Browns as a pass game specialist and tight ends coach.
Rees has coordinating experience from his time at Notre Dame and Alabama. LSU could use some of his ideas when it comes to improving the run game.
With Reese, LSU gets a guy who has an established relationship with Kelly and big-time college and NFL experience.
Greg McMahon
If Kelly wants a true special teams coordinator, few names make as much sense as Greg McMahon. He worked at LSU from 2018-21 and didn’t stick around when Kelly took over, but Kelly already brought one assistant from that staff back, hiring secondary coach Corey Raymond.
McMahon is one of the best special teams coaches in the business. He was the Saints’ special teams coordinator for eight years and led LSU’s special teams on its 2019 national title campaign.
McMahon currently serves in the same rule with Tulane.
Evan McKissack
We’ll stick with the Tulane staff here. McKissack is the Green Wave’s offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator. He’s coached tight ends before, leading that room at Troy.
Recruiting at the SEC level would be new to McKissack but LSU would get a rising young coach that gets results.
Del Alexander
Alexander worked as Kelly’s wide receivers coach at Notre Dame from 2017-21. Before his time at Notre Dame, he was Arizona State’s TEs coach from 2012-16.
Now, Alexander works at UNLV where the Rebels offense is one of the best in the G5 and one win away from a College Football Playoff berth.
Alexander has some experience in the South after working as an assistant at Georgia Tech.
Rob Sale
This is a long shot. Sale is Florida’s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach and likely isn’t leaving the Gators unless it’s for another OC job, but he’s a former LSU player and his ties to Louisiana run deep.
He’s worked at McNeese State and Louisiana-Monroe. Along with Florida, he’s made other SEC stops at Alabama and Georgia.
Sale gets good results from Florida’s run game and offensive line and would be a welcome addition to LSU’s staff given the Tigers’ ground attack struggles in 2024.
John McNulty
Here we have another staffer from Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame days — McNulty was the Fighting Irish TE coach from 2020-21.
He has extensive NFL experience and was Boston College’s OC In 2022 before taking an analyst job at Alabama.
With McNulty, Kelly can get a guy he’s familiar with who’s coached tight ends at the NFL level. LSU can use a veteran coach with coordinating experience after losing Nagle.
Adam Kleffner
If LSU wants to look inside the building, look no further than Adam Kleffner.
Kleffner joined LSU’s staff in March as an analyst after working in the same role at Illinois. He played for LSU offensive line coach Brad Davis at Portland State and later worked for Davis as an analyst at Missouri.
Kleffner is familiar with the SEC and LSU’s scheme. It’s worth remembering his name, but I think LSU will look externally.
Freddie Kitchens
A former NFL head coach, Kitchens is one of the bigger names on this list. He has a previous stint at LSU, working as a graduate assistant under Nick Saban in 2000.
He’s familiar with the SEC and was an on-field coach at Mississippi State in the early 2000s and worked as an analyst at South Carolina in 2022.
Kitchens is serving as the interim head coach at North Carolina after the Tar Heels fired Mack Brown. There’s a chance he’s retained on the eventual new staff in Chapel Hill, but if he isn’t, he should get a look in Baton Rouge.
Grant Cain
Few staff are as hot as Indiana’s. After a rapid turnaround in Bloomington, Curt Cignetti and crew are the talk of the coaching world. Cignetti’s tight ends coach and special teams coordinator is Grant Cain.
Under Cain, Indiana’s special teams ranked 11th in SP+, and Indiana TE Zach Horton posted the seventh-best run-blocking grade in the Big Ten. If LSU is looking for a coach on the rise, Cain is the way to go.
Joe Cox
Cox is the tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator at Ole Miss. Before that, he worked as a tight ends coach under Nick Saban at Alabama. He has SEC experience and pedigree and his players produce.