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LSU made a competitive decision this offseason to move on after Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. By scoring it, the Tigers brought one of the most outstanding coaches in school football to the swamp.
But they did it with the best expectations. He is now the highest paid coach in school football and inherits a program in which the last 3 coaches have won national titles. Kelly is the top completed of the 3 up to the time they were hired at Baton Rouge, so there’s no pressure.
In his distribution of freshmen coaches, CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson Kelly has the shortest leash of the bunch, which is understandable given the standards.
There’s a sizable contract that suggests great financial stability for Kelly, but that contract also comes with expectations from LSU fans that he can guide the Tigers to the championship. There are no “cultural fit” concerns here for the Massachusetts native, because the only culture that relates to LSU is winning. However, if the wins don’t come in the box and Kelly can’t protect Louisiana’s borders well on the recruiting track, then things will start to heat up for the new Tigers coach. It’s a tough proposition for Kelly, which is probably why he’s paid so well to take him on, because the floor for a talented LSU team with him as coach is probably 8-4, with an SEC championship being the ceiling. It’s a small area to operate between good fortune and failure when LSU already has one of the toughest convention schedules in the country. Even after a lucky breakout season, razor-thin margins mean Kelly only has a few bad rebounds after seeing his inventory take a sharp turn the other way.
After a 6-7 result, expectations want to be measured this fall, but that doesn’t replace the fact that Kelly was hired to temporarily remodel this program. He has a list of untested players after a heavy movement portal transport, but also a talented player who deserves to make the cap relatively high in the first year.
If this is a disappointing season, the honeymoon era in Baton Rouge can end pretty quickly.
Five hypothetical SEC transactions that would make sense for LSU
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