It was quite shocking to see Brian Kelly leave his post with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish after being there for over a decade. He turned in his golden dome for the purple and gold on the Bayou.
It looked like LSU was making a heavy push for Lincoln Riley until he ultimately took the job with the USC Trojans. The Tigers went with Kelly and it kickstarted a wild coaching carousel. Those moves opened up the Notre Dame and Oklahoma jobs and we saw movement like none we have seen in a long time.
While all of the carousel news is in the rearview mirror, we focus on analyzing their new situations. Where does Brian Kelly fall in line among his peers? According to a list from Brad Crawford, he ranks among the 10 best.
What 247Sports Says…
LSU opened the checkbook with its investment in Brian Kelly, who’s annually ranked among the “who’s who” of college coaches given his illustrious tenure at Notre Dame. Not only is Kelly an ace recruiter, but he brings out his best on gamedays and has won three national coach of the year honors during his career. Kelly has appeared in the College Football Playoff twice (2018, 2020) and reached the BCS title game a decade ago against Alabama. At LSU, the Tigers’ talent level should bring out Kelly’s best.
A look at the top 10 names on the list, Kelly has a lot of good company. We start with the former LSU Tigers defensive coordinator.