A college football coach is on the move from one major program to another for the second day in a row.
Just one day after USC hired Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, LSU is hiring Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly as its new head coach, according to multiple reports on Monday night.
Sources: LSU is expecting to hire Notre Dames Brian Kelly as the schools next head coach. An announcement could come as early as tomorrow.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 30, 2021
Just now Brian Kelly messaged Notre Dame’s roster in Team Works that “I will be leaving Notre Dame.”
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) November 30, 2021
The plan is for Kelly to meet with the team tomorrow at 7 a.m.
Here is the full message pic.twitter.com/sqAl2txZIy
Kelly’s impending move to Baton Rouge comes even as Notre Dame remains in the hunt for a College Football Playoff berth this season, as the one-loss Fighting Irish could still make the CFP depending on what happens in conference championship games this weekend.
In 12 seasons at Notre Dame, Kelly has a record of 113-40, highlighted by a trip to the BCS National Championship Game at the end of the 2012 season and trips to the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2018 and 2020.
Now, he’ll be replacing Ed Orgeron as the leader of an LSU program that has gone just 11-11 in the last two seasons but went 15-0 and won the national championship in 2019. Per The Athletic’s Matt Fortuna and Brody Miller, Kelly’s new deal with LSU is a 10-year contract worth more than $100 million with incentives.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, immediately replaces LSU and joins Oklahoma as one of the biggest open head coaching jobs in college football.
Several coaches with Ohio State ties are among the early speculative candidates for the job: Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell looms as an obvious target, promoting current Fighting Irish defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman could also be an option and many are already wondering whether Notre Dame could be the job that entices Urban Meyer to return to college football.
