When Scott Woodward hired Brian Kelly three years ago, an ebullient LSU Athletic Director punctuated the most expensive hire in Louisiana state employee history by adding, “All he does is win.”
Kelly took the sentiment a step further by predicting he would bask in the bright lights that come with the glow of championships. Thirty-six months later, Kelly has won, but there are no neon reminders of his greatness and no victory parades past broad magnolias and stately oaks.
At 63, Kelly is a decade younger than Nick Saban and counting 21 wins vacated at Notre Dame, the LSU coach has racked up 313 victories, 16 more wins that Saban posted on the field in 28 seasons at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama. BK is within range of Joe Paterno’s all-time best total of 409 triumphs.
Kelly’s numbers are prodigious. Yet he is an enigmatic character who has not warmed the fan base despite showcasing the most exciting offenses produced by the Ole War Skule since 19 generals from LSU were beating Hitler in WWII.
Kelly’s favorite word is elite, which is several strides ahead of eleven defeats in 38 games. Elite implies championship runs, not bowl appearances. Kelly is a winner, but at LSU, that is no longer sufficient. He must take it all in 2025 or fall behind not only Saban, but also Les Miles and Ed Orgeron in the hierarchy of excellence at TigerTown. Each recent predecessor conquered the world by the close of his fourth season in Baton Rouge.
Charles McClendon is the winningest coach in LSU history with 137 victories from 1962-79, but Charlie Mac received equal doses of respect and revulsion by falling short of ultimate glory. LSU fans are convinced they are funding the best mousetrap in college football. They exhibit minimal patience when the school’s signature sport does not reign as a dynasty on the river.
Georgia fans are kindred spirts to LSU partisans as preeminent powers within their state borders. The Bulldogs were weary of 15 years of solid, but not supreme seasons under Mark Richt. From 2001-15, Georgia was 145-51 overall, 83-37 in the SEC with a couple of conference crowns. Richt was a lonesome loser with a resume’ that included seven Top Ten finishes, one No. 2 rating and another No. 3 final poll standing.
Richt was replaced by Kirby Smart, who is 105-18 in nine seasons at Athens with a pair of national titles, five Top Four finishes and four SEC rings. This is the performance level demanded by the LSU faithful as Kelly traverses the challenges of playing in a league where 12 members claim NCAA honors in 56 seasons.
College Football Championships and SEC members
Alabama 18
Oklahoma 7
Tennessee 6
Georgia 4
LSU 4
Texas 4
Texas A&M 3
Florida 3
Ole Miss 3
Auburn 2
Arkansas 1
Kentucky 1
Mississippi St. 0
Missouri 0
South Carolina 0
Vanderbilt 0
Kelly is guiding his ship against rigorous competition as fickle followers spew invectively in the arena and on their keyboards. The waters are polluted for a seasoned helmsman charting his course in a whirlpool of professional mercenaries depicted as student-athletes.
If Kelly approaches the coaching shelf life of Paterno, he will surpass him atop the career victory chart. The man from Massachusetts who started his odyssey as an assistant with the Assumption Greyhounds in 1983 and has enjoyed success as head coach at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU, must decide whether he wants to keep chasing the championship rainbow or retreat a few steps ahead of a raging posse.
Kelly’s 28-11 start is analogous to Gerry DiNardo’s mark of 26-11-1 in his first three years at LSU from 1995-97 and Nick Saban’s 28-12 record after his initial three seasons from 2000-02.
The fates of DiNardo and Saban were settled in years four and five at LSU. DiNardo’s last two seasons in 1998-99 produced a woeful decline of 6-15 and opened the gate for Saban, who inherited a program that had wilted to eight losing seasons in the previous eleven, had not won the SEC title in more than a decade and had not captured the NCAA championship since Nick was in second grade.
Saban was 22-4 in his last two years at LSU before defecting for a pair of seasons as coach of the Miami Dolphins. As he said goodbye to Louisiana, he had secured two SEC titles in five years and the 2003 BCS title.
Kelly is at a pivot point with the next few seasons determining his longevity and his legacy. Unlike McClendon and Jerry Stovall, he can retire rather than look for another job to pay his bills. Kelly earns more in a week than either Mac or Jerry did in a year. Both collected National Coach of the Year awards at LSU but were engulfed with a torrent of nostalgia for a return to the pinnacle of 1958. Kelly is facing passion from sentimentalists who relish those crazy pre-Covid celebrations of 2019.
Charlie Mac left for a while and found solitude in the shadow of Disneyworld as he relocated to Orlando to become president of the National Coaches Association. Stovall went to work for a local bank for a few years before holding jobs as athletic director at Louisiana Tech and president of the Baton Rouge Sports Foundation.
McClendon returned to his adopted home and died on Menlo Drive at age 78 in 2001 with more than a few scars incurred from a rabid fan base expecting Taj Mahal results from a coach who resided in a 2,354 square foot home in Kenilworth.
When the time comes, Stovall, who is 83, will also leave the planet where he achieved greatness as a player, was a good coach, but did not win enough to keep the madding crowd at bay.
Paul Dietzel also died in Baton Rouge where he won it all, surrendered his destiny for West Point, returned 17 years later as athletic director and was brutally fired at a 1982 LSU Board meeting in Alexandria. Tall Paul moved to the other side in 2013 at 89, an age that is over a quarter-century away for the current maestro.
Brian Kelly arrived in TigerTown at 60. It will be a story for the ages if Kelly grows old and rules as Lord of Lakeshore Drive. It is more likely that he will continue to be a good coach and will last until naysayers decide that “good” is a bad word when assessing the fate of LSU football coaches.
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