Brian Kelly says Nick Saban advised him on LSU football job
Brian Kelly made one of the biggest moves of the college football offseason when he moved away from Notre Dame to become the new LSU head football coach.
Before accepting the job, however, Kelly says he first spoke with Alabama head coach Nick Saban about what to expect by making the move to the SEC.
"Nick and I have always had a relationship," Kelly told CBS Sports.
"We're busy. It's not like we're gonna sit down and say, 'Hey, what do you think?' In my conversations, he can talk about his experiences and what the strengths are of a program like LSU. I was obviously able to put enough together that this was a great program and a great opportunity.
"He's been here. He knows. When you get advice and counsel from a guy like Nick Saban, he's a good one to take it from."
Saban should know what it's like to lead the LSU football program personally. He coached the Tigers from 2000 to 2004, leading the school to a 48-16 overall record and winning the BCS national championship in the 2003 season.
Making the move to LSU presents Kelly with enormous potential, but not without what figures to be an equally enormous amount of adversity.
Namely, from Saban himself. LSU plays in the SEC West, long regarded as by far the most dominant and competitive division in college football. Kelly and the Tigers will face a weekly slugfest against some of the best, most talented teams in the nation.
To face that gauntlet, LSU will need to win all the recruiting battles it can. So far, Kelly has made positive inroads on that front, tapping the talent-rich pool of Louisiana and the Southeast, signing what 247Sports called the No. 12 recruiting class in 2022.
LSU has holes to fill in the defensive secondary and on the offensive line, but first Kelly needs to sort out the team's quarterback situation.
Myles Brennan figures to lead that race, but he'll have competition from Arizona State transfer Jayden Daniels, second-year player Garrett Nussmeier, and 5-star 2022 signee Walker Howard.
"I thought this was going to be a lot in terms of reps," Kelly said of the quarterback race.
"But coach [Joe] Sloan, coach [Mike] Denbrock have done a great job of really getting all of them the appropriate work so we can evaluate them and so they go through the spring and go, 'This was fair. We got an opportunity to compete.'
"And they're all getting an opportunity to compete. It's been fun to see them compete. All of them have strengths. We can't play them all, but as we get closer to the end of the spring, I think we're starting to feel like we know what their strengths are. And that's what you want from the spring."
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