When searching for a new head football coach, it was clear that LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward wanted to make a splash by hiring someone with a winning pedigree and a great resumé.
Having hired the winningest coach in Notre Dame history, it’s safe to say Woodward accomplished his goal.
Brian Kelly coming to LSU is a hire that few expected, but one that many believe will be a “home run” hire. It has been met with criticism from some, but when looking at the objective facts of Kelly’s career and what he has accomplished, it is easy to be on board with the decision to hire him.
His success at Notre Dame has been astounding, especially when you look closer at the context.
Since Lou Holtz left Notre Dame in 1996 following a tenure that included a national championship, four head coaches have coached at Notre Dame and posted winning percentages of .583, .583, .565 and .729 respectively.
Obviously one of those stands out from the others and that is the .729 winning percentage the Brian Kelly posted over 12 seasons in South Bend. The reality at Notre Dame is that it is much harder to win there than it may have been in the earlier days of college football. In the 1980s, when Holtz was head coach, Notre Dame was the main attraction in college football.
Its TV deal with NBC meant that it was the only team guaranteed to be on TV every week, making it the premier brand in all of college football. Now that media has modernized and expanded, Notre Dame does not have the same draw it once had. With the playing field equal in terms of exposure, not being located in a talent-rich state and being limited in choosing players because of academic restrictions, Notre Dame is simply not able to attract the same kind of talent that schools like Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Georgia and others can. Given these factors, the consistent success that Kelly has had at Notre Dame has been astonishing. Being the winningest head coach at a school where it is more difficult to win now than it has ever been is a remarkable achievement.
When countering this, some will argue that he’s never won a national championship and his record against top teams is not great, but that has everything to do with the context of the current situation at Notre Dame. It is nearly impossible to win a national championship competing against programs like Alabama and Clemson due to the extreme talent disadvantage Notre Dame had compared to these programs. Kelly’s success and consistency at Notre Dame shows how capable of a coach he is. When the handcuffs are taken off of him in recruiting, one can only imagine the success he could have at a program like LSU.
Another common objective some fans have is that Kelly may not fit the culture of LSU and Louisiana. Kelly is from Massachusetts and spent his entire coaching career in the midwest, so coming to LSU will be an adjustment.
However, when it comes to culture, there is no more important aspect of culture at LSU, or anywhere, than winning. When Nick Saban came to LSU prior to the 2000 season, the same concerns were raised. He was from West Virginia, spending his entire career to that point in the midwest and was unfamiliar with Louisiana and the south. Four years later, he had a national championship and made LSU a relevant football program again, and was beloved by the entire state. Obviously, there is only one Saban, but he is an example that winning is the culture that matters most at LSU, and Kelly has done that more than any other football coach LSU has ever hired.
Kelly may not be the entertaining character that Ed Orgeron and Les Miles were, but he is a serial winner, unlike those two proved to be. All of the sound bites and funny moments are great, but as proven by Orgeron’s downfall, fans get tired of all that when the wins stop coming. You won’t get the sound bites, the shirtless jogging or eating grass with Kelly, but you will get wins. With the current state of the program, having a leader who is all about taking care of business and consistency is what the program needs right now after the failures of the last two years.
I never like to label a coach a “home run hire” on day one because it’s hard to really give a judgement until games start being played. However, Kelly has all the characteristics of a coach that fits LSU for what he program needs right now and of someone who can win at a high level. Time will ultimately tell whether or not Kelly is the ultimate “home run” hire, but on the face of it, there are few reasons to believe why he can’t become that.
