By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Gradually, incrementally and now clearly, LSU’s Brian Kelly looks like another average football coach hire by LSU athletic director Scott Woodward.
Hired at approximately $10 million a year for 10 years after the 2022 regular season, Kelly came to LSU with a national championship contract already in his possession. Other coaches, like Jimbo Fisher going from Florida State to Texas A&M after the 2017 season, get those kinds of contracts after winning a national title, which he did at Florida State in the 2013 season.
Fisher, also hired by Woodward, is still getting paid by Texas A&M because Woodward hired him for $75 million over 10 years. After Woodward left A&M for LSU in 2019, A&M stupidly extended that deal another three years and to $95 million before the 2021 season because Fisher went 9-1 in 2020. Fisher has been out of coaching since the end of the 2023 season when he walked away with a the largest buyout in college football history at $76 million, and he is still getting paid by A&M. Penn State’s James Franklin, meanwhile, just walked off with a meager $49 million buyout.
Story updated with Brian Kelly postgame presser. “Their details were better.” … Uh, that wasn’t all. https://t.co/lzdjZp96vi
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 18, 2025
Kelly, who will have six years remaining on his contract after this season, would be owed a $53 million buyout if fired without cause as of Dec. 1, 2025. That sounds like cause to seriously reconsider the future of Woodward and his wayward spending at LSU. Obviously, former No. 10-ranked LSU needs to unload some salaries to buy some more football players via the Transfer Portal, if Saturday’s 31-24 loss at No. 17 Vanderbilt is any indication. And Woodward makes $1.85 million a year through 2029.
Yes, baseball and women’s basketball national championships are great, and Woodward hired the great coaches – Jay Johnson and Kim Mulkey – responsible for that. But LSU is a football school. You can go look that up in the LSU library, but watch out for the mold.
Kelly has won at LSU – 10-4 and 6-2 (West title), 10-3 and 6-2 and 9-4 and 5-3 in his first three seasons, and he could finish in that fashion this season after dropping to 5-2 and 2-2 in the SEC on Saturday. But those are Les Miles numbers after his 2007-08 national title and 2011-12 national champion runner-up. From 2012-15, his Kelly-like 10- and 9-win seasons with an 8-win drop over that span got him fired in 2016 after a 2-2 start. And Kelly could finish 8-4 this season.
CROSSROADS IN NASHVILLE: TODD HORNE
This was supposed to be Kelly’s national championship season with returning senior starting quarterback and an $18 million roster. Now, the playoffs this season and a national championship this season or soon look like fantasy.
“They’re still in it, you know,” Kelly said after the game Saturday. And he’s mathematically correct.
But LSU has not played the elite SEC teams yet, with the possible exception of Ole Miss. I’m like Nick Saban, who said on College GameDay Saturday that he is not ready to digest Vanderbilt as one of those teams. And Vanderbilt (6-1, 2-1 SEC), which lost 30-14 to Alabama two weeks ago, slapped LSU around most of the day.
“They got Texas A&M at home,” Kelly said of his players.
Yeah, and the Aggies (6-0, 3-0 SEC) are No. 4 in the nation and will be favored at LSU on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).
“Then they got a week off,” Kelly said.
After that, LSU plays at No. 6 Alabama (5-1, 3-0 SEC), which hosts No. 11 Tennessee (5-1, 2-1 SEC) tonight (6:30, ABC).
“And then it’s a four-game race to the SEC championship,” Kelly said.
Yeah, for four other teams, unless you win one or both of the next two.
“Yes, it’s a disappointing loss,” Kelly said. “There’s no doubt, it’s going to sting. But they’ve got to bounce back to reality, and know that they’ve got to play mistake free against an outstanding A&M team.”
The reality is LSU is not going to the playoffs for a fourth straight season under a $10 million-a-year coach hired to win a national championship like the three coaches before him.
Another reality is the fact that Woodward has hired exactly one great football coach in his athletic director career at Washington, Texas A&M and LSU. And that was Chris Petersen in 2013. Steve Sarkisian was not a great hire at Washington or at USC. He is looking better now at Texas, but not great. Fisher definitely was not. And Kelly is somewhere between Fisher and Sarkisian – closer to Fisher.
If Kelly doesn’t suddenly turn this around and reach the playoffs, look for some sort of financial agreement to take place between him and LSU after the season with him walking away with something less than his buyout.
Because when LSU and its money people really want to do something, they have a tendency to find enough money to pull it off.
And if that happens this year or soon, Woodward should not be the athletic director that makes the next football hire.
Be the first to comment