LSU coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] has been around the block.
He’s the third-winningest active head coach in the FBS ranks with stops at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati and Notre Dame before arriving in Baton Rouge last offseason.
But despite a head coaching career spanning more than 30 years and 273 wins, he’s still looking for his first national championship at the Division I level.
Because of that, he doesn’t sit at the very top of The Athletic’s college football coaching tiers entering the season. He isn’t far behind, though.
Nick Saban stands in a tier by himself at 1A, followed by Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney in the 1B tier. Kelly finds himself in Tier 2 along with Ryan Day, Luke Fickell, Jimbo Fisher, Jim Harbaugh, Lincoln Riley and Kyle Whittingham.
Kelly was a two-time national Coach of the Year at Notre Dame, and he won 10 games and the SEC West in his first season at LSU. It seems like all it would take for Kelly to move into the top tier would be finally winning it all, as the Tigers’ last three head coaches have done.
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