Brian Kelly appears to have new gig with CBS Sports

Brian Kelly made his first television appearance since LSU fired him in October on Tuesday, sitting alongside Brent Stover, Kevin Carter, and Beanie Wells on CBS Sports Network to break down 2026 NFL Draft prospects.

According to USA Today‘s John Brice, it won’t be his last. CBS college football studio work, radio, and podcast appearances are among the paths being explored going forward. The timing is not entirely voluntary — Kelly’s $54 million buyout from LSU requires him to seek employment to help offset the payout — but CBS Sports is a reasonable enough place to start figuring out what comes next.

Kelly left Notre Dame after the 2021 season, having gone 113-40, and told anyone who asked that he wanted to be in an environment where he had the resources to win a national championship, comments he would later say were misinterpreted. He showed up at an LSU basketball game three days into the job, affecting a Southern accent he’d never had at Notre Dame, and never fully recovered from the impression that he didn’t actually want to be there.

Kelly went 34-14 over four seasons, produced a Heisman winner in Jayden Daniels, reached the SEC Championship Game in year one, and never made the College Football Playoff despite its expansion to 12 teams. He was slapping tables in press conferences and snapping at reporters over routine questions by the time the end came.

The $54 million buyout — the second-largest in college football history, behind only Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M exit, both negotiated by the same athletic director — means Kelly is not going to be sitting idle regardless of his preferences. CBS Sports Network is a start. Whether it turns into something more when college football season comes around remains to be seen.