Following the first losing season for LSU prior to the Nick Saban era, new head coach Brian Kelly had plenty of work to do.
Kelly has been a program builder in each one of his stops, leaving the team in better standing than how he found it. By the time he left Grand Valley State, they were winning Division II national championships. During his tenure, Kelly won nine or more games six times and finished his final two 28-1 with back-to-back championships.
After his 13 seasons in Allendale, Michigan, he would move on to Central Michigan to take over a program that won just one conference game in 2003. He lasted just three seasons before taking the job at Cincinnati. In 2006 he helped lead CMU to a 9-4 record and 7-1 in conference play.
Kelly would end up coaching Cincinnati in their bowl game in the 2006 season and won his Bearcats debut. Over the span of three seasons, Cincinnati won 10+ games each year. He would be on the move again, this time to Notre Dame.
Over the next 12 seasons, the Irish would win 10+ games seven times, however, the 2012 season was vacated. Following the 4-8 season in 2016, Kelly’s team would win double-digit games each year before Kelly left at the end of the 2021 campaign.
The LSU Tigers’ victory over Purdue gave him his sixth consecutive season of 10 or more victories. In all, Kelly has produced 13 seasons of 10 or more victories since 1991. It would be 14 had it not been for the vacated season due to ineligible players participating.
LSU Wire takes a look at the last six of those seasons.