Brian Kelly is about to enter his fourth year as the head coach of the LSU football team, and he hasn't had a lot of success yet. He was the head coach of Notre Dame for 12 years before coming to the Tigers, and he came so that he could compete for national championships. Well, the Fighting Irish made it all the way to the national title game last year, and LSU hasn't made the College Football Playoff under Kelly. That needs to change.
The LSU football team is paying Brian Kelly a lot of money, and he isn't delivering. Meanwhile, Marcus Freeman has stepped in and taken Notre Dame to new heights already. That isn't a good look for Kelly.
“I think that the urgency is there, or should be, for LSU and Brian Kelly,” Fox analyst Joel Klatt said during a recent episode of his podcast. “Brian Kelly knows it. That's why he hit the portal so hard. They had to fill some holes, because it's got to happen for them. Listen, Notre Dame can't be going and playing for the national championship while LSU is not playing in the CFP. That's not why LSU paid Brian Kelly, that's as plainly as I can put it. And everybody knows it. 9-4 is not going to cut it for them. They lost three straight in the second half A&M, Bama and Florida. That can't happen again.”
The good news for Kelly and LSU is that this year's roster should be one of the best in the country. The Tigers have an experienced quarterback returning in Garrett Nussmeier, and he has a lot of talent around him. Both sides of the ball are in good shape, so there is really no excuse for Kelly to not get this team into the College Football Playoff.
“They get Harold Perkins back after he tore his ACL in the first month of the year,” Klatt continued. “I think that they can get him back to kind of that freshman mold. Number one ranked portal class. This should be a really good team. This should be a very good team, a team that goes to the CFP. How high can they go? I'm not sure. Are they good enough to get to the SEC championship game? I'm not sure.”
This has to be the year for Brian Kelly and the LSU football team. It's Kelly's fourth season with the program, and he has a ton of talent to work with. If it doesn't happen this year, why should Tigers fans continue to have faith about Kelly down the road?