Michael Wilbon lost his voice on Monday, but he had just enough left to completely eviscerate Brian Kelly following the former LSU coach’s firing over the weekend.
During Monday’s episode of Pardon the Interruption, the longtime ESPN host appeared to take pleasure in the way the fourth-year head coach’s time in Baton Rouge ended, especially after the way he left Notre Dame.
“Part of this makes me smile a little bit,” Wilbon said on PTI. “Because he was so arrogant about it, about the transition. ‘I’m gonna leave Notre Dame and go some place I can win a national championship.’ Do you think the rest of us are fools? And he sort of got what was coming.
“Now, is it the right move (to fire him in-season)? Probably not. Because LSU, like so many other schools, are led by administrators and boosters who are so damn arrogant themselves. They think it’s their birthright. … Don’t tell me they can automatically, just because everybody else had won a championship in four years — (Ed) Orgeron, (Nick) Saban — don’t tell me they are automatically going to find the coach who is going to deliver a championship in a couple of years.”
Kelly hasn’t received very much sympathy from the college football world since he was fired. ESPN has been particularly hostile towards him, with on-air talent saying he was doomed to fail and that the school had no choice but to fire him.
Kelly left Notre Dame to take the LSU job in 2022, replacing Ed Orgeron. In his three-plus seasons there, Kelly went 34-14 overall and won at least nine games each year, but never got the Tigers to the College Football Playoff.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.