If Brian Kelly wants to coach again, I'm listening. Am I crazy? | Opinion
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Getting fired by LSU freed up more time for Brian Kelly to do what he does best.
No, I’m not talking about driving a U-Haul, although Kelly says he did indeed drive the moving truck after LSU booted him from the Boot.
I’m talking about politics.
Kelly spent the past few months doing a media circuit and politicking for a new job.
Kelly, as any football observer knows, is an ace politico, and he’s convinced at least one person he might deserve another shot somewhere.
Me.
Admittedly, I’m probably not Kelly’s target audience. He doesn’t need to convince me he’s hirable. He needs to persuade an athletic director.
If I was some down-in-the-dumps Midwest school — looking at you, Wisconsin — I’d at least consider kicking the tires on Kelly.
Let’s back up for a minute and ask a relevant question: Does Kelly want to coach again?
He says that, yes, under the right circumstances, he wants to coach again.
“I’m in a very good position that I don’t have to coach again unless it’s the right coaching position,” Kelly told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview in April, “but I want to coach.”
He repeated that refrain in subsequent interviews.
Of course, Kelly can’t say he absolutely doesn’t want to coach again — not if he wants to collect all of the $54 million buyout he’s owed — because his LSU contract included a duty to mitigate the damages. So, it behooves him to at least feign an interest in other jobs.
Still, I can’t come up with a good reason why Kelly would so persistently be doing media interviews and telling anyone who’ll listen that he’d like to coach again unless he actually has some legitimate interest in continuing his career.
“I want to be back coaching,” Kelly told USA TODAY. “That’s what I love to do.”
“I could be happy being the head football coach at Harvard,” he added later. “I want to get in for the players and the relationships. That’s what I miss.”
Harvard, if you’re wondering, employs a good football coach, but there's probably another Ivy League school that could use a boost.
Or, hmm, I don’t know, Syracuse. A native Bostonian in Upstate New York? That’d make more sense than a yank in the bayou.
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Does Brian Kelly have more in the tank?
You might be thinking: Didn’t Kelly fail at his last job? Why does he deserve another shot?
Sure, he failed. He won nearly 71% of his games at LSU, but by not making the playoff in four seasons, he failed to meet the school’s demanding expectations or live up to his $95 million contract.
“At the end of the day, I didn’t win enough games,” Kelly said. “That’s the bottom line.”
True, Kelly didn’t win enough at LSU, but 71% would look good on Wisconsin.
Kelly failed. LSU failed harder, by thinking it hired someone Kelly already had proven he’s not: a shark who wins the biggest games.
Lane Kiffin’s introduction as LSU’s coach at SEC media days Thursday reminds us the Tigersmoved on with a coach who has, perhaps, not peaked and is suited to the free agency era.
Kelly, 64, peaked when he took 2012 Notre Dame to the national championship game. That doesn’t mean he’s washed. With the right coordinators in place, Kelly could buoy some downtrodden ACC or Big Ten program.
He’s a good coach, a reliable winner. He’s just not a championship coach, which is what LSU had hoped it was getting, despite significant evidence indicating otherwise.
LSU ensured Kelly would coach against top-10 opponents, his kryptonite, more often than he did at Notre Dame, or any job that came before that. LSU hired a player development coach in what became a microwave era.
No wonder he failed, and yet, being a good coach, albeit not a championship coach, would be an upgrade for many schools.
Hire Brian Kelly, or chase the next Curt Cignetti? That's the question
The question every school must ask itself is whether it wants a retread who’s an established winner, or whether it wants to try to unearth the next Curt Cignetti.
This past hiring cycle, three SEC schools hired up-and-coming coaches from the American Conference. Kentucky went with hot-shot offensive coordinator Will Stein from Oregon. Nobody in the SEC, other than LSU, hired a coach with Power Four experience.
By comparison, the Big Ten’s Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State hired established, accomplished coaches.
Most of the SEC’s recent hires come with an unknown floor and ceiling. You could have said the same of Indiana’s hire of Cignetti, although Cigs’ resume was lengthy and impressive, just not at the Power Four level.
Stein almost channeled some Cignetti vibes when he said at media days he believes Kentucky will become a winner “because of me, to be honest."
Admirable bravado.
That’s got “I win. Google me” vibes.
Except, those who googled Cignetti saw a career full of wins.
Those who google Stein will see a 0-0 record.
Google Kelly, and you’ll see a coach who wins nearly three-quarters of the time, a coach who’s campaigning for another job. He’s no stranger to politics. He just needs to win the vote of one school.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: If Brian Kelly wants to coach again, I'm listening. Am I crazy? | Opinion
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