The Brian Kelly era at LSU is not something that anyone is really going to remember very fondly, unless it comes to the memes and jokes at his expense.
Kelly left Notre Dame to go to Baton Rouge and replace favored Cajun son Ed Orgeron, who had won a national championship with the Tigers. It was Kelly’s hope that the looser academic requirements and the SEC’s freedom would provide a better path for him to win a title than he had found at Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way. In spite of all the hype and all the money spent, Kelly was 34-14 at LSU. While that was good enough to pad his career winning percentage, LSU never threatened the playoff or the championship, and he was unceremoniously fired after seven games in 2025. Since then, the drama over his firing has gone all the way to the governor, while the hiring of Lane Kiffin made it look like a game of Monopoly.
Aside from the massive buyout controversy, the two lasting images from Brian Kelly at LSU are his infamous recruiting video and his introduction at a Tigers basketball game, where he seemed to almost cosplay a southern accent. And while the entire sports world seemed to enjoy Kelly’s demise, the man he replaced seemed to be one of them.
Ed Orgeron had his own scandals at LSU, but is making a surprise return to the university to join Lane Kiffin’s staff, although let’s be honest, nothing LSU does surprises anyone anymore. And in an appearance on Pardon My Take, he couldn’t help but pour some more dirt on Kelly’s grave as a coach by making light of his infamous Baton Rouge intro.
“It’s over, he ain’t got a chance,” Orgeron said when asked by PFTCommenter what he thought of that night and the viral video of Kelly’s sudden accent.
“Not only do fans see it, the players see that. One of the things, you guys know this, man, players got to trust you. You got to be who you are. If you try to be somebody you ain’t, they gonna smell it right away.”
The fake southern accent of Brian Kelly was truly something to behold when he was welcomed to LSU all the way back in December 2021. Thankfully, Lane Kiffin did not decide to follow in his footsteps, at least in that regard.
So far, Kelly hasn’t gotten another coaching job and was last seen on CBS Sports Network analyzing the NFL Draft this spring.
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