Brian Kelly has been the LSU Tigers head coach for three seasons, owning a 29-11 record. While he has given his all to help his team reach the SEC Championship Game, he hasn’t successfully reached the College Football Playoff.
But Kelly’s name and work are receiving attention due to his former team, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, playing in the national championship, even though they were defeated 34-23 by the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Top Analyst Defends LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly Amid Backlash
Prior to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Kelly told CBS Sports, “I’m happy for all those guys; I pull for them.
“A lot of the guys there that are on both sides of the ball, I recruited. Obviously, I want to see those guys win it all, and I think they’re in a great position. Totally excited for those guys.”
Even though Kelly left South Bend a few years ago, he still faced backlash over his out-of-the-blue decision to leave Notre Dame for LSU in November 2021. His unusual decision came just weeks after he became the winningest coach in Notre Dame’s history.
After coaching the team for 12 whole years, his leaving for LSU literally shocked many fans. Kelly said he felt he could not win at Notre Dame due to its limited resources: “I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship.”
A caller on “The Paul Finebaum Show” asked whether Kelly made the right decision to leave Notre Dame for LSU. Finebaum answered quickly by disagreeing and said it was a smart move.
“He didn’t leave there to go to LSU to win a national championship,” Finebaum said. “He quit. He realized that he could not do it there. He knew he had limitations. I think, in the end, he made a smart decision because Notre Dame would not have played for the national championship had Brian Kelly stayed. He was not recruiting up there at a level that was needed. Marcus Freeman is.”
ESPN analyst Booger McFarland also supported Kelly by saying, “I will say this defending Brian Kelly because everybody’s been playing a clip about him leaving Notre Dame and why he left Notre Dame. I think when he made the statement, it was a true statement because it was a pre-NIL, pre-transfer portal.”
“It’s an important distinction because when he left, he left for LSU to win a title. Notre Dame probably had a more limited ceiling than they do right now,” McFarland said, per On3.
“Right, so like the fact that they’re in the title game with players that he helped recruit, there is a bad look, but if you really understand the sport, you probably can understand too how Notre Dame was able to fix it so quickly and maybe he wouldn’t have left had this system existed back then too.”
KEEP READING: CFB Insider Takes a Strong Stance on Brian Kelly’s Future With LSU
Lastly, Kelly, in his defense of the backlash he is facing on his comments, stated, “I wasn’t leaving Notre Dame because I couldn’t win a championship. You can win championships at Notre Dame, but I chose another path because I wanted a different challenge.”
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