re: How Did We Get It So Wrong with Kelly?

(Possibly) the right guy at the wrong time

Kelly won a LOT of games prior to coming to LSU. You don't do that simply by being lucky or having a "bad schedule". I think Kelly saw that no matter what he did, he was not going to be able to recruit (overall) the same level of athlete at ND that programs like Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, etc were getting. Largely because ND has certain admission restrictions those schools don't. He saw a place in LSU that didn't have those restrictions. One who had won 3 National Championship in 20 years under 3 different coaches. None of whom had great success before coming to LSU. Kelly thought he could come in, replicate the same formula with which he had success throughout his career. Only this time with the inclusion of a level of athlete he never had access to.

Howver, the college football world was changing in 2021. It had only been two seasons that the freedom of transfer rules were in place. Same for NIL. That gave players leverage they NEVER had before. Like most old-school coaches, Kelly wasn't keen on adapting to that new world. At least completely.

In 2022 had had to bring in a lot of transfers simply to field a competitive roster. But he didn't want transfers to be the norm. That's why he didn't bring in a ton of plug and play starters on defense in 2023. What resulted was an atrocious defense that wasted a terrific offense. He fired his DC at the end of the year, but he still didn't want to dive into the transfer market. Despite clear roster holes on defense, he didn't address the needs significantly because he didn't want to get into bidding wars for transfers. That was largely because he still wanted to build primarily through HS recruiting.

That's why he let his OC walk for unqualified guys who had better HS recruiting chops. He sacrificed competence for recruiting. It was only when that failed (Underwood didn't sigh) that he changed course and decided to go hard in the portal for immediate starters. Unfortunately, he still had weak coaches on staff....which led to this year's disaster.

Kelly never found the balance of coaching and recruiting in an ever changing landscape. Maybe in a prior time he's great.

This should be one of the most often asked questions by avid followers of LSU, which describes most of us to a T.

When it was announced Kelly would become the next head coach, I remember the Rant was fairly happy, thinking he would be a substantial upgrade over Coach O. I do recall a lot of support for Lincoln Riley, of course.

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When I peruse the portal needs for '26 thread, we're in almost as bad of shape as we were after '21.

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We were in terrible shape in 21.

especially when you consider how many of those guys were gone after 22.


We had 2 DBs who made a contribution.

We had 3 total OL who took played for Kelly.

ND and Freeman have a SOSrating of 7 nationally this year. We are 16.
Wanna try again?

He goy it wrong by hiring the wrong coaches. 2 years in he’s firing the whole defense. Brought back Baker and Raymond who were on the staff when he got here. Denbrock leaves and he promotes sloan. Davis was the only coach he retained and we have not had a running game since he has been here. Hell he fired Tommy Mofffit. Special Teams and recruiting were a dumpster fire with Polian.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Anyone can scream it now all they want, but the fact remains that nearly everyone praised the Woodward hiring. Many even called him the best AD in the nation at the time. As far as Kelly, he may not have even been the best hire at the time, but it's just silly to say he also wasn't a very solid coach at that time. No one could have predicted just how much the NIL and transfer rules would transform college football into what it is now in so short of a time. Saban himself said NIL was a contributing factor to him retiring.

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ND fans tried to warn everyone but came across as salty..

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The same ND fans that were absolutely pissed off that he left?

There were red flags that were ignored by certain people because they cared more about who they were getting the coach from than the coach himself.

He was a walking red flag the minute he stepped on campus, but a lot of people hand waved it away and said it wasn't a problem.

The roster is going to be as bad or worse than 2021 for the bowl game and going into next year

Me. as well

We were going after Lincoln Riley, all in and whiffed. All the other decent candidates went somewhere else in the meantime. Kelly was the only girl still left at the bar. Nobody had him on their short list. We talked ourselves into believing he was good after the fact.