Ducks Digest

LSU Hires Notre Dame's Brian Kelly as New Head Coach

The coaching carousel craze got even crazier when Notre Dame's longtime leader headed to the SEC.

John Rustik

First it was USC finding its new coach, and now it seems that LSU has found its new coach. College football was hit with another massive twist on Monday when it was announced that Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly would be replacing Ed Orgeron as LSU’s head coach next season.

In a now ironic quotation, Kelly said last week, “Unless that fairy godmother comes by with that $250 million check, my wife would want to take a look at it.”

It seems that Kelly’s wife did take a look at it and approved of the move.

Yahoo! Sports' Pete Thamel was the first to report the news.

Current Head Coach ed Orgeron and LSU had agreed to part ways last month, which will be effective at the end of this season. After leading the Tigers to the National Championship in 2019 with Joe Burrow, Orgeron and LSU went 5-5 in 2020 and currently sit at 6-6 in 2021.

Kelly has been the coach at Notre Dame for 12 seasons, which has included a national championship trip and two trips to the College Football Playoff. He has the most wins in program history with 92.

Notre Dame currently sits at No. 6 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings with its only loss coming against No. 4 Cincinnati. The Irish still have everything to play for this season as they still have a chance to make the playoff, especially given that they could potentially move up with an Ohio State loss and Georgia and Alabama meeting in the SEC Championship.

Despite finding success in the regular season, Kelly has struggled to find victory in the big games for the Irish. During his tenure in South Bend, he posted an overall 5-5 record in bowl games. However in the New Year’s Six, College Football Playoff and BCS games, Notre Dame has gone 0-4, which is emphasized by a 42-14 thrashing in the 2013 National Championship against Alabama.

Following the announcement from LSU Tuesday, it would be relatively unlikely that Kelly sees out the rest of the season with Notre Dame. It will likely be Defensive Coordinator Marcus Freeman that leads the Irish the rest of the way this season.

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John Rustik
JOHN RUSTIK

John Rustik is a senior studying Journalism at the University of Oregon. A Eugene native, he is also a member of DuckTV and focuses on Oregon Football. 

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