So Woodward locked up BK with a single 45-minute conversation

Just think about that for a minute and the time frame of firing Orgeron and when Scott had a convo with BK.

How could anyone think he was our first choice? Most on this board were clinging to the speculation. That this was in the works for a while, BK refused and Scott had to circle back. Now ppl are saying it was being negotiated with his agent.

SW had to lock this up last minute because Riley feel through and the available options were already signed.

Seems pretty obvious that Rileys agent was creating the smoke for his own financial interest. Sounds like we had our guy for a while.

quote:

---

So Woodward locked up BK with a single 45-minute conversation

---

I wonder what date that conversation took place.

quote:

---

Riley also said he didnt talk to any other school beside USC

---

he's parsing his words. Maybe "Riley" didn't speak to any other schools, but his agent did.

quote:

---

That's what Kelly just said. Wow.

---

It's what he has to say and it may be true from a Kelly to SW standpoint. But backchanneling and his agent had to be in the mix well before this past week.

quote:

---

quote:

---

So Woodward locked up BK with a single 45-minute conversation

---

I wonder what date that conversation took place.

---

If you look from a certain perspective, "a single conversation" is always the answer to this question= for any job.

Go talk to Nick Saban.
He will either NOT be interested and tell you to go away, and refuse your follow-ups; or he WILL be interested. If he keeps taking your calls and you work out a deal, it all comes back to that first conversation that opens the door.

Kelly listened, was interested enough to continue talking. A deal was worked out. He didn't flat-out refuse and was worn down, he was open to it.
He also almost certainly didn't just say "wow, you know what? That sounds good. What the frick, I'm going to toss my decade at Notre Dame into the garbage can and take this job tomorrow".

Now, a guy like Napier might have done that when Florida called. We don't know how serious anything was at Auburn in the past, but he got a chance to move from the Sun Belt to the SEC. He probably looked things over, and told his agent to get the deal ready before Florida changed their minds.

Just a reminder, Kelly & Riley have the same Agent. This was most likely locked in early. The Agent isn't just parsing the opportunity for 1 of his coaches, but all of his coaches.

I would be willing to be anything I own that they have had conversations in the offseason. Maybe not specifically about the LSU job per se, but I bet that's where a lot of the vetting and philosophical conversations happen. I don't think Kelly is lying about the conversation with Woodward, but I also don't believe that was enough for Woodward to sell him on his vision for the program. How many times did Kelly talk about alignment? There's no way he could be confident about their alignment in a phone conversation while he was on the road recruiting in California.