Brian Kelly is a great coach, and you can’t really dispute that. His record at Grand Valley State was 118-35-2. But if that doesn’t impress you, how about 34-6 at Cincinnati or perhaps 92-40 at Notre Dame, including playoff appearances and a national title game? And so far at LSU, he’s 20-7, rebuilding a roster decimated by the purge of Ed Orgeron. But as great a coach as Brian Kelly is, he’s also full of crap.
Kelly has always been a self-promoter and a smidge of a narcissist. He’s not out of the Deion Sanders playbook of self-absorption, but he’s not far off. At Cincinnati, he said all the right things about being loyal to the Bearcats while his agent consistently sent out feelers for openings, some with a desperate plea. He lucked into the Notre Dame job and did well, but his constant defensiveness regarding recruiting rankings and how Notre Dame lacked at certain positions was a regular occurrence. Kelly couldn’t land the consistent top 10 recruiting classes the boosters and fans wanted because of academic restrictions. Meanwhile, Marcus Freeman has come in and done just that.
Now, at LSU, we are expected to believe his recent whiffs on transfer portal players, mainly defensive linemen, are because he refused to pay NIL demands. Kelly wants us to not only think LSU has higher standards than others and won’t “buy” players but also seems to hint their NIL collective isn’t so strong.
Brian Kelly: “We’re not in the market of buying players. Unfortunately, right now, that’s what some guys are looking for. They want to be bought.”#LSU fans, what y’all think about this? 🤔
pic.twitter.com/SeyRJEHXxz— SEC Unfiltered (@SECUnfiltered) May 7, 2024
Some people are buying into this narrative. They are falling for Kelly, saying that culture and the locker room are more important than players with their hands out.
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Brian Kelly isn't saying LSU can't/won't play ball in the NIL space. He's saying the main thing is stay the main thing when they look to add talent. I'm all about ithttps://t.co/7Fmlf1E04J pic.twitter.com/Lhu1zeWmDB
— J.D. PicKell (@jdpickell) May 8, 2024
"You cannot let your circumstances compromise what your overall vision of your program is supposed to be." 🗣️@LateKickJosh reacts to Brian Kelly's comments on NIL and the transfer portal | @Geaux247 🐯 pic.twitter.com/O4BaeL4U4l
— 247Sports (@247Sports) May 10, 2024
It’s cute to believe this. It really is. And if Kelly truly meant it, I’d buy in, too. Of course, you want culture over paid mercenaries. Of course, you want players to buy in and not cash out. The Deion Sanders way won’t work. When the chips were down at Florida State, the roster caved and bowed out, many of them transfers, while Kirby Smart’s UGA team, based on culture, played strong (63-3). But Kelly doesn’t mean it, at least I don’t think he does.
This is the second year in a row that LSU feels like an underachiever in the portal. And they were involved in bidding wars each of the last two cycles. But what people don’t understand is that it’s not 100 percent about money for players. They want to be recruited, wanted, and developed. And for defensive players, they don’t see that at LSU under Kelly. He’s not an elite recruiter despite so many advantages now at LSU and zero worry about academic restrictions. He doesn’t make people feel wanted because he’s both awkward and a fish out of water down in Louisiana. And last year’s defense was an embarrassment of epic proportions with a lot of highly-rated guys. Bidding war or not, defensive players aren’t lining up to play for Kelly. Just look at the 2025 class so far.
Brian Kelly isn’t taking a stand against overpaying players. He’s failing in a job that could be over his head. Let’s not get this twisted.
