Is Brian Kelly At LSU For The Long Haul?
One big question swirling around in most LSU Tiger fan circles is that will Brian Kelly be here for a cup of coffee or will he finish out his contract in Baton Rouge?
Kelly played linebacker for Division II university Assumption and also started his coaching career there in 1983. His first head coaching job was at Grand Valley State in 1991. Since then, Kelly has been the HC at Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and now LSU.
Coach Kelly just signed a massive 10-year contract worth a base pay of $95 million. As previously reported, his contract is laced with tons of insanely high-paying perks. So his earning potential is way more than his base contract. For example, Kelly will get paid $500,000 extra just to stick around and coach the Tigers the following season.
So it begs the question, will Kelly finish out his contract at LSU or eventually pull a Lincoln Riley and find a job with less competition? Many men have thought they were ready to coach in the most elite conference in college football. And many men have found out their talents are more suited for the American Athletic Conference.
The expectation for any LSU head football coach is very overwhelming. If we don't make the playoffs it's been a bad season, and winning a national championship is the goal every year. The metal of any man who takes control of the program will be tested.
I believe the reason Brian Kelly accepted the Tiger head coaching job is that he wants to cement his name in the books as one of the best college coaches of all time. Coming to the SEC shows me he has no fear and believes in his abilities to win. I want a coach that believes that his name should be spoken in the same sentence as Nick Saban. I want a coach who has a big ego, and because of that failure is not an option. I want a coach who's been coaching for 38 years and he's still hungry to prove himself.
I believe that Brian Kelly sees the LSU coaching job as the final act in his amazing career. He'll be 70 when his contract expires and I'm sure ready for retirement. This isn't a young coach looking for new notches on his belt. Kelly's belt has plenty of them. This is a coach that knows he needs to be successful in the SEC and win multiple national championships for the record books and fans to call him one of the best to do it.
I do not think Coach Kelly will leave LSU before his contract is up. I was personally pulling for Woodward to hire Dabo Swinney, but I do love the Kelly hire. Do I believe Kelly was the "home run" hire Woodward had promised us at the beginning of the coaching search, absolutely not. I think Lincoln Riley and Jimbo Fisher turned the job down before Kelly was a strong consideration.
I'm excited to see what the future holds for Kelly and the Tigers. I want to believe, with every fiber of my being, that Kelly will bring us many national championships during his tenure at LSU, but only time will tell. All I know is that I'm down for the ride.