In a fleeting moment of honesty, Brian Kelly said aloud LSU’s open secret.
“I loved my time at Notre Dame. I have nothing but great memories there,” head football coach Kelly told ESPN. “But the whole landscape there is different than it is here. It just is. There are priorities at Notre Dame. The architectural building needed to get built first. They ain’t building the architectural building here first. We’re building the athletic training facility first, [and] we’re in the midst of a $22 million addition to our athletic training facility.”
“It’s something I said we needed, and we went and immediately raised the money.”
This obvious truth spoken so plainly from the face of Baton Rouge’s—and perhaps Louisiana’s—most powerful institution raised some eyebrows.
Kelly tried to walk back his comments after they caught heat on social media, telling the Louisiana Illuminator his words had been mischaracterized.
“If you look at many of my statements,” Kelly, who has a 10-year, $95-million contract, told the Illuminator, “my reason for coming was my conversation with President Tate and his commitment to academics and excellence … from day one, the allure for me was that commitment to both on and off the field.”
We were with you the first time, coach. You were perfectly clear. After all, it only takes a short walk around campus to understand LSU’s priorities.
The football locker room got a $28-million facelift in 2019, paid for by donors to the Tiger Athletic Foundation. Business Insider described the facility’s open concept as “similar to that of a luxury jet and complete with sleep pods, charging stations, and upgraded technology.”
Many have argued that since these lavish facilities are often funded mostly by donors, with a separate pot of money from academics, there’s no reason to complain.
Instead, this shows how the misalignment of priorities extends far off campus. Why do wealthy donors lack the fervor for academics that they have for athletics?
We’re not asking for a luxurious library, just one that doesn’t earn national ridicule every few months when photos comparing it to our athletics facilities inevitably go viral online again.
The LSU Library—the physical embodiment of LSU’s academics—is sorely neglected. The roof leaks, fourth-floor shelves are covered in plastic, and some books have molded. Garbage cans catch rain, with holes in the ceiling from water damage completing the ambience.
Other academic buildings have suffered from persistent maintenance issues.
In summer 2022, HVAC problems and water damage resulted in visible mold in offices on the third floor of Audubon Hall, leaving many graduate students displaced from their offices for a time, the Reveille reported.
In the Renewable Natural Resources Building, it rains inside. That building, too, has been plagued by mold problems.
So, yes, Kelly got it right the first time.
LSU students love football and athletics, yes. It’s a part of Louisiana life. But we’d also like to not need an umbrella in our classrooms.
In the meantime, let’s at least speak straight on the realities at LSU.
