CBS Sports says Brian Kelly has a short leash this fall
LSU made an aggressive move this offseason to go after Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. In landing him, the Tigers brought one of the best and most proven coaches in college football to the bayou.
But they did so with hefty expectations. He’s now the second-highest paid coach in college football, and he inherits a program where the last three coaches have won national titles. Kelly is the most accomplished of the three at the point they were hired in Baton Rouge, so no pressure.
In his breakdown of first-year coaches, CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson said that Kelly has the shortest leash of the group, which is understandable given the standards.
There is a hefty contract that suggests plenty of financial stability for Kelly, but that contract also comes with expectations from the LSU fans that he can guide the Tigers back to championship contention. There is no “culture fit” concerns here for the Massachusetts native, because the only culture that really matters to LSU is winning. However, if those wins aren’t coming on the field, and Kelly can’t properly defend the borders of Louisiana on the recruiting trail, then things will start to heat up for the Tigers’ new coach. It’s a really tough proposition for Kelly — which is probably why he’s so well-paid to take it on — because the floor for a talented LSU team with him as the coach is probably 8-4 with the ceiling being an SEC Championship. That’s a small space to operate between success and failure when LSU already has one of the toughest conference schedules in the country. Even after a successful season, those razor-thin margins mean Kelly’s only a few bad bounces from seeing his stock take a sharp turn the other direction.
Coming off a 6-7 finish, expectations have to be somewhat measured this fall, but that doesn’t change the fact that Kelly was hired to turn this program around quickly. He has a roster with some unproven players after a hefty transfer portal haul, but it’s also a talented one that should make the ceiling relatively high in Year 1.
If this is a disappointing season, the honeymoon period in Baton Rouge could be over fairly quickly.
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