Can Brian Kelly and LSU win it all?

cdub55

All-SEC
Aug 13, 2024
1,093
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Alabama
Kelly will never win a NC. He has a long history of burning bridges in the coaching profession and he treats people as pawns in his self absorbed game of chess. I had a friend who was a coordinator for him a few years ago and to say he wasn't a fan of CBK would be an understatement. He is the type of "leader" that blames everyone but himself when things go bad, and wants all the credit when they go right. Not to mention KARMA is not on his side, I just don't see him ever holding up the trophy...
 

selmaborntidefan

TideFans Legend
Mar 31, 2000
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When Ed Orgeron won a NC it let me know that, given the right situation, anyone can.
I agree as far as the POSSIBLE thing, but Orgeron headed them up when:
a) they still had the Saban-Miles shine over a number of years (his seniors were Miles's freshmen)
b) you only had to be able to win two to capture the championship
c) the transfer portal had not become ubiquitous free agency

Gene Chizik could also be cited, but again...
a) he only had to win that one game once he got there
b) there was no transfer portal
c) only Auburn had NIL, most notably at quarterback

I think the additional number of games plus players who are unhappy with their playing time being able to leave DURING or JUST PRIOR to the playoff for a team that might be, say, a 5-seed will prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again. It will disrupt team chemistry that is essential to success. (I honestly think that if LSU had lost to us in 2019, they would have imploded and not made the playoff due to a "what the hell happened" loss, largely because while they were talented, I think much of their success had to do with momentum as much as anything).

I'm not by any means dismissing what you're saying, you make a good point. I just think too much has changed to ever allow it again. Plus, I think we both agree Kelly is a better head coach than Chizik and Orgeron COMBINED.

Let me show you something else I cannot imagine ever happening again:
2006 Florida - Leak and Tebow
2017 Alabama - Tua and Jalen

A backup that talented is NOT going to stick around any longer.
 

UAH

All-American
Nov 27, 2017
4,183
5,290
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Kelly doesn't come off looking good in the Netflix documentary Any Given Saturday.
I completely agree with that! I would get suspended by describing how he appeared to me! Difficult to understand how outstanding athletes would play for him and I doubt that he will ever get the best from them.
 

colbysullivan

Hall of Fame
Dec 12, 2007
19,345
20,812
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Gulf Breeze, FL
I completely agree with that! I would get suspended by describing how he appeared to me! Difficult to understand how outstanding athletes would play for him and I doubt that he will ever get the best from them.
I can’t imagine how anyone would play for him based on how he treats them. My goodness, what a *****.
 
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Coach D

1st Team
Apr 27, 2023
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With their roster this year I would give them the best shot at an NC from the SEC. but that’s before seeing the teams play at this point so who knows anything. I do think he could but a decent coach with money to buy a roster could at this point in time.
 

CaliforniaTide

All-American
Aug 9, 2006
3,727
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Huntsville, AL
I don't know if you call it causation, but there seems to be a bit of a correlation to Notre Dame's ability to actually play better in big games after Kelly's departure. I thought they had a legit shot against OSU.
 

NoNC4Tubs

Hall of Fame
Nov 13, 2010
9,745
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Central Alabama
But here's where I have a problem with this level of analysis, and I don't disagree with the general point being made. But we can't have this argument both ways.

If a coach is awful and his team is 3-9, he gets blamed for it and - in the SEC - probably fired. We can't say that if a coach gets fired he deserved it but not give him at least SOME credit for WINNING. Even if one wants to go with the argument "but coaching staff, but Joe Burrow," the guy in charge who is "responsible" if they lose has to get some credit if they win. All of it, no.

And YES - mediocre head coaches can win championships.
Does anyone really think Barry Switzer was even minimally passable as an NFL coach? Does anyone believe that Gene Chizik, Bobby Ross, Larry Coker, or Orgeron were really all that great? When Coker imploded, everyone wanted to say, "well, he was okay when he inherited Butch Davis's players."

Excuse me, but what the hell has Butch Davis done? He was 103-75 as a head coach (I'm giving him the wins the NCAA took away for academic misconduct), but take away his 11-1 season in 2000 that was obviously an anomaly and he's 92-74 (.554), meaning his average year was 6.6-5.4.

So Larry Coker was no great shakes, and Butch Davis proved his ineptitude over and over again (he was 24-35 in the NFL and blew a huge lead in his only playoff game)....and yet somehow they managed to compile what a lot of folks insist was the greatest college team ever.

So yes, I would put Orgeron in that category of coaches who were basically .500 schlubs who caught lightning in a bottle with the right staff or right recruits or both plus some schedule luck. But he has to get some credit for it, too; unless the entire coaching staff was picked by the school administration and the recruits came there because of that, Orgeron gets some credit.

It's like the old "Belichick never won anything without Tom Brady."

OK, fine.

But who drafted Tom Brady?
Who stuck with Tom Brady when his starting (and pretty good) QB came back healthy and won the AFC championship to make the Super Bowl?

I'm willing to call it lightning in a bottle for a one-time champion, but Belichick won a bunch of Super Bowls with a quarterback who has probably no HOF teammates on his side of the ball in the Super Bowl years at the helm, too.
I think I would add Gene Chizik in that line of argument...;)
 

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