Days before Brian Kelly was fired as LSU’s football coach, I commented on my talk show on that Kelly had not lived up to expectations and the upcoming game against Texas A&M would be a major test of his coaching career, and that I didn’t expect LSU to win even though the game was at home in Tiger Stadium. I didn’t think there was even a chance of an upset and LSU and Brian Kelly made me look like a sports expert losing to their SEC rival 49-25. It was a pitiful performance by LSU and the culmination of Coach Brian Kelly’s inability to bring LSU to the playoff level - as promised.
Brian Kelly’s body language and his facial expressions told the story. Kelly is old. He’s 64, but he looks and acts 84. He appeared to be a grumpy old man who thought he knew everything, but demonstrated that whatever he knew was past tense. Kelly seemed to live in the past and college football had passed him by, but rather than try to update his football IQ Kelly wallowed in his way of doing things.
I didn’t follow Kelly when he was coach of Notre Dame other than to know that he was coach of that iconic football school. But as coach of LSU Kelly was not a leader. He finished with a record of 34-14 over 4 years. That may not seem bad, but what the record doesn’t show is that Kelly failed to win too many of the big, important games and failed to live up to the expectations that carried him to LSU.
Being coach of LSU is a very coveted position in college sports. I don’t know what the leaders of the school were thinking, but Brian Kelly fooled them like Houdini fooled his audience that he was really in the tank of water the whole time. Part of Kelly’s failure falls on the LSU leaders who hired him and they need to figure out who they could have made such a massive mistake and do better this time.
There are reports that Kelly seemed to enjoy golf more than studying football and correcting his mistakes. Kelly was also known to not be personal with the fans and after a live appearance left the building like he stole something. That behavior is not acceptable and Kelly’s performance proved that his full heart was not into football. It’s as if he thought he was above the crowd and that didn’t play well and his on the field failures vouched for his superior attitude.
I also discussed the human factor of knowing that you have a cushion worth tens of millions of dollars whether you succeed or fail. Not every human will strive to be their best and to dedicate the hours and hours it takes to be great IF lack of success is rewarded with what is said to be a $53 million buyout. If you really love golf and if you think you are above the fans and the people of a school in Louisiana, what is your incentive to spend the hours of working when you know that failure includes a financial reward? Maybe Brian Kelly did spend the hours and maybe he did really care, but he did a good job of disguising that drive.
I had a hard time believing that Brian Kelly had the drive he had in the beginning when he had to succeed to pay the bills. For many people, once needs are met, doing the hard work of continuing to be successful disappears.
Life isn’t fair and the failure of Brian Kelly as head coach of the LSU Tigers reminds us that there are times when those who fail are actually rewarded. That is a terrible example for young people who should be taught to always strive to be the best they can be and to see the dedication to excellence as the true reward and the financial gains to be secondary.