SEC Coaching Rankings – Syndication Server

Where does Brian Kelly rank among SEC coaches heading into Year 2 at LSU?

Kelly ranks third behind only Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, per On3.

LSU stunned the college football world just over a year ago by hiring longtime Notre Dame coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] away from the team.

Under Kelly — the winningest coach in program history — the Fighting Irish had consistent success, but the program had stagnated a bit which led some to wonder how a transition to the SEC would suit Kelly.

However, after a 10-win season in Year 1 that featured an SEC West-deciding upset against Alabama and surpassed even fans’ wildest expectations, Kelly’s stock is at an all-time high. In On3’s latest SEC head coaching power rankings, Jesse Simonton lists Kelly third behind Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Alabama’s Nick Saban.

After going 10-4 in Year 1 at LSU, Brian Kelly won at double-digit games for the 14th time as a head coach in 2022 — including six consecutive seasons. LSU, which had won a total of 11 games the previous two years combined, wasn’t supposed to even compete for the SEC West in Kelly’s first year in Baton Rouge, but the Tigers won the division and upset Alabama in a classic.

The Bayou Bengals have the makeup of a College Football Playoff contender this fall, as Kelly has assembled a roster — with a Top 5 recruiting class and one of the nation’s best transfer portal hauls — and a staff — both coordinators return — good enough to win the SEC.

It’s hard to argue with this placement. Saban is arguably the greatest coach in college football history, and Smart is well on his way to legendary status after capturing back-to-back national titles. Only one other league coach has won a title — Jimbo Fisher, who ranks just eighth after a head-scratchingly bad season in College Station.

Kelly is directly ahead of Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, who is coming off a breakout season with the Vols, Kentucky’s Mark Stoops and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer.

This is a league with great coaching, and it’s hard to compete with the likes of Saban and Smart. Still, Kelly looks like the best coach right now outside of that tier, and he could solidify that if this team can take a leap to CFP contention this fall.

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Where Brian Kelly stands in latest SEC coaching rankings from USA TODAY Sports

Kelly isn’t your typical first-time SEC coach.

Typically, expectations need to be tempered for first-time SEC coaches. It’s the most competitive league in college football, and the constant challenge week-in and week-out can provide quite the learning curve.

But [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] is not your typical first-time SEC coach. He arrives with more than three decades of head coaching experience, and he spent the last 12 at one of the premier jobs in college football in Notre Dame.

As the third-winningest active coach in the FBS ranks, he’s more accomplished than arguably any coach in the league, save for the three who have won national titles. But where exactly does he stand entering his first year in Baton Rouge?

USA TODAY Sports SEC columnist Blake Toppmeyer tried to provide the answer in his recent rankings of the conference’s head ball coaches. Here’s how his list shakes out, including his reasoning for each selection.

Brian Kelly stands near the top of the SEC coaching rankings heading into 2022

Kelly ranked fourth in the SEC according to these rankings from CBS Sports.

The collection of coaching talent currently in the Southeastern Conference is astounding, and it only got better this offseason when LSU hired coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] — the third-winningest active head coach in the FBS — away from Notre Dame, where he had spent 12 seasons.

Kelly came to compete against the best and, ultimately, capture an elusive national championship. Though coaching the Tigers will present a challenge the likes of which he hasn’t faced so far in his coaching career, his track record speaks for itself.

It’s for that reason that, heading into 2022, Kelly is considered one of the best coaches in the league. According to CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee, he ranks No. 4 in the league this fall — and No. 7 nationally.

Brian Kelly (7 overall): The first-year coach of the Tigers led Notre Dame to two CFP berths and a spot in a BCS National Championship Game during his 12-year tenure in South Bend, Indiana. That success came despite academic and geographic challenges that make it difficult to sustain success at an elite level with the Fighting Irish. He is 263-96-2 overall in his career (not including vacated wins) and has been named Home Depot Coach of the Year three times. Last year: N/A in the SEC

Sallee has Kelly listed behind Alabama’s Nick Saban, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, which seems fair given the fact that each of those three has won a national title, with Saban and Smart representing the previous two champions.

Fisher’s last and only title came in 2013, and he hasn’t quite delivered so far in the league after jumping from Florida State in 2018. But with a lot of talent congregating in College Station, the Aggies should be formidable in the near future.

Still, Kelly isn’t your typical first-year head coach in the SEC, and thanks to his pedigree, he brings high expectations with him to the bayou from South Bend.

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Where does Brian Kelly rank among SEC coaches in 2022?

On3’s Jesse Simonton ranked Kelly as the league’s third-best coach this fall.

Normally, you would expect that a first-year SEC coach would fall near the bottom of any preseason coaching rankings list.

This is the most difficult league in the country, and it chews up and spits out more coaches than you can count. The average coach generally faces a significant learning curve.

But [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] is not your average first-year SEC coach. With a head coaching career spanning decades, Kelly is the third-winningest active coach in the FBS. He came to LSU to win a national title, and he’s proven that he’s one of the best coaches in the country.

That’s why in these recent SEC coaching rankings from On3’s Jesse Simonton, Kelly ranked third — just behind [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag] and [autotag]Kirby Smart[/autotag] while sitting one spot ahead of a national championship-winning coach in [autotag]Jimbo Fisher[/autotag].

Here’s Simonton’s take.

Considering just four active head coaches in all of college football have a national championship on their resume, it may seem blasphemous to slot Kelly ahead of Fisher, but this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately set of rankings. Kelly bolted South Bend for Baton Rouge for a better chance to win his own ring, but he did win at least 10 games the last five years with the Irish — something Fisher hasn’t done once yet with the Aggies. Kelly does enter Year 1 with the Tigers in an interesting spot, though, as the talk of titles (re: the reasoning he left Notre Dame) has overshadowed LSU’s actual expectations in 2022.

Kelly certainly orchestrated an impressive run over the last few years in South Bend, and now that he’s inheriting a program with a wider talent pool to choose from, it’s natural that expectations are high.

The Tigers may have some growing pains in Year 1, but they should have a coach who is well equipped to manage those challenges.

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