[autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] and [autotag]Kalen DeBoer[/autotag] are two of the sport’s highest-paid coaches at two premier programs, but it wasn’t always this way.
Kelly and DeBoer will square off on Saturday night when LSU meets Alabama, but they once took a similar path to get where they are now — both getting their head coaching starts at the D-II level.
That’s not always something you see in modern college football. Kirby Smart began as an administrative assistant at Georgia and worked his way up through the ranks. He wasn’t a head coach until he took over Georgia in 2015.
Dan Lanning’s path was similar, climbing the assistant world before he got the chance to lead Oregon in 2022.
Guys like Ryan Day and Dabo Swinney are in the same boat. The big-time jobs they have now were their first head coaching gigs.
Kelly and DeBoer were both head coaches long before they caught their big break. Kelly led Grand Valley State from 1991-2003. DeBoer was the Sioux Falls head coach from 2005-09.
Both coaches got experience building a winning program at the lower level before getting the chance to do it on the biggest stage. That’s not necessarily better. Things have worked out well for Smart, Lanning, Day, Swinney, and the other coaches of that nature. But there’s value in getting that initial head coaching experience.
Kelly’s rise was slower than DeBoer’s. After his time at GVSU, Kelly was the head coach at Central Michigan and Cincinnati before taking over a major program at Notre Dame. By the time Kelly got the Fighting Irish job, he had 19 years of head coaching experience under his belt.
DeBoer didn’t bid his time in the same way. Just a few years ago, he was the head coach at Fresno State. But DeBoer’s big game track record won him the job at Alabama.