By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Well, Brian Kelly won his last game as LSU’s football coach after all on Wednesday. And it was a big one – a $54 million bowl game, if you will.
And LSU has cleaned up an embarrassing legal mess regarding contract law in the process just in time to clear its desk for the anticipated hiring of Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin to a brand new contract very soon.
LSU sent Kelly a letter Wednesday, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, saying he was fired without cause and that it would be paying his $54 million buyout in full. That after LSU had tried for weeks to change its firing of Kelly to with cause so it would not have to pay that buyout, or negotiate it down.
LSU recently offered Kiffin a seven-year contract worth more than $90 million with incentives along with an approximate $25 million annual reserve for Name, Image & Likeness talent procurement via the NCAA Transfer Portal and traditional high school recruiting.
Kiffin, 50, is expected to decide to take the LSU job, stay at Ole Miss for similar money or take the vacant head coaching job at Florida for a similar offer by Saturday. The No. 7 Rebels (10-1, 7-1 SEC) play their regular season finale at Mississippi State (5-6, 1-6 SEC) on Friday (11 a.m., ABC).
“It’s all happening,” as Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane said in the “Almost Famous” classic about rock stars … like Lane Kiffin.https://t.co/KajxywPVmM
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 26, 2025
Before LSU sent Kelly its letter of surrender Wednesday, there was a concern among some LSU officials, major donors and LSU attorneys that LSU reneging on a contract to a previous coach may hurt its chances of hiring the next coach that it wants.
Two Baton Rouge lawyers with degrees from LSU contacted by Tiger Rag in recent weeks each said LSU would have difficulty negotiating Kelly down from his $54 million buyout by saying he broke the morality clause in his contract. They said LSU’s argument also was hurt because the effort to switch its firing of Kelly from without cause to with cause looked suspicious and without credibility.
Will the $54 million question about fired coach Brian Kelly – without cause – be answered Friday at special LSU Board of Supervisors meeting just called?https://t.co/k3eihc704H
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 20, 2025
Kelly, by the way, turned down back-to-back settlement offers by LSU of $25 million, then $30 million since his firing. Those strategic moves in a game of chicken likely won Kelly the entire $54 million.
“As you know, there is absolutely no basis to LSU’s contrived positions that coach Kelly was not terminated (on Oct. 26) or that cause existed for such termination,” Kelly’s representation stated in a letter to LSU on Nov. 18.
The letter said that LSU’s efforts to switch its reason for firing Kelly from without cause to cause and not sending him written formal notice of that firing “has made it nearly impossible for coach Kelly to secure other football-related employment.”
The letter added that “LSU’s conduct continues to harm coach Kelly, particularly during this critical hiring period.”
The story of that letter broke late Monday and Tuesday, and obviously had a sudden impact, as LSU called it quits.
The letter from LSU that Kelly received Wednesday fell exactly one month to the day that then-LSU athletic director Scott Woodward fired Kelly for not leading the Tigers “to SEC and national championships during his time in Baton Rouge,” Woodward said in an athletic department release on Oct. 26 that spelled out a without cause firing.
“Ultimately, the success at the level that LSU demands simply did not materialize, and I made the decision to make a change after last night’s game,” Woodward said in the release a day after LSU lost, 49-25, to No. 3 Texas A&M to fall out of the College Football Playoff race for the fourth of four seasons under Kelly.
Woodward, who hired Kelly to a $100 million contract over 10 years after the 2021 season from Notre Dame, was describing a “without cause” firing in his comments, which meant Kelly would be paid for the remaining six years of his contract, equaling $54 million.
Welcome to Louisiana Shakespearean University … LSU athletic director Scott Woodward gets the dagger 4 days after knifing football coach Brian Kelly.https://t.co/kT0otYNs6N
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 31, 2025
The LSU Board of Supervisors then fired Woodward on Oct. 30. Later, LSU officials said Woodward did not have the authority to fire Kelly and tried later to fire him with cause, which would mean he would not be paid the buyout. But Kelly’s lawyers eventually put an end to that, climaxing with the LSU letter on Wednesday.
So while LSU AD Verge Ausberry tries to negotiate Lane Kiffin into being LSU’s next football coach, LSU’s Board just decided to try to keep negotiating former coach’s $54 million contract down.https://t.co/3aHVOj9Ajh
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 21, 2025
Just last Friday, LSU’s Board of Supervisors decided in executive session that it would continue efforts to get out of paying Kelly the $54 million buyout. And it authorized new LSU president Wade Rousse to send Kelly “written notice of termination under his employment agreement” after “appropriate consultation and review with general counsel.”
Asked if that “written notice of termination” to Kelly by Rousse would be without cause or with cause, LSU Board of Supervisors athletic committee chairman John Carmouche said, “The president will make that decision.”
Rousse on Wednesday made the decision to fire Kelly without cause – likely after “appropriate consultation and review with general counsel) – for a second time – first time in writing. And that cleared the way for $54 million to Kelly, who won his previous big game at LSU on the field, 32-31, over No. 6 Alabama and coach Nick Saban in overtime in his first season with the Tigers on Nov. 5, 2022.
To continue getting monthly installments of his buyout, Kelly need only seek other employment and “maintain reasonable documentation” of that job search and continue to show “good faith and reasonable and sustained efforts to obtain employment,” as stated in his contract.
But Kelly doesn’t actually have to find another coaching job or TV analyst position to keep the buyout payments coming.
“He only has to prove that he is sincerely looking,” attorney Tom Mars, a college football coaching contract expert, told Tiger Rag.
But at 64, Kelly may not be a prime candidate for college football jobs, no matter how hard he looks.
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