BK, A Real CEO

My biggest problem with Ed, is that he fancied himself something that he wasn’t.. an EVALUATOR. In order to be a true CEO, evaluation has to be one of your biggest attributes. He could sell just about anything because he does have a high level of social awareness and therefore knew what people wanted hear. However, when push came to shove, his ability to evaluate is what cost him the job. Orgeron was too other people reliant.

Brian Kelly is an actual CEO. So is Scott Woodward. That’s why they clicked, likely instantly. They see things in the same light. They can both peer into a department, evaluate both the strengths and weaknesses and then decide what to replace or adjust. Evaluators, evaluative, which does take time. Every coach that leaves, Kelly vetted them and decided that he knew somebody who else is better suited for that job in his organization. Their vision, knowledge and process didn’t align with his own, so they were dismissed.

You’re gonna hear the word “confidence” a lot in describing Kelly because he trusts himself more than he is going to trust any outside voice. BK trusts his own evaluations, his own knowledge, and his own processes because he has been proven right time and time again. When you hear somebody say “it doesn’t matter who the OC is because it’s Kelly’s offense,” you’re basically right. Kelly knows exactly what he wants, and he knows how to execute what he wants.

Each coach is the head of a department in his company called LSU Football. Each coach will have clear expectations with data generated results to grade their execution. Every coach at LSU will be replaceable. No one person is bigger than organization. Every change will cost the organization something, but for Kelly, the gain outweighs the loss.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize how bad LSU football was until Kelly got under the hood. Evidently it was pretty far gone and this is a bigger rebuild than I first estimated. I’ve personally resided in the fate that this year, this recruiting cycle is going to hurt. There were no band-aid fixes except to the O-Line department. We might still miss on Perkins and Mathews, and that’s ok. This process will still be a quick turn around because it is LSU Football.

This spring/fall we will see a brand new football team, some of the names and faces will be the same, but the operation will be different, better. As a fan, I’m excited!