Media spotlight on Brian Kelly’s failed tenure at LSU

The LSU Tigers have fired head coach Brian Kelly, according to reports. Players were contacted to attend a team meeting tonight to notify them of the change. Contract buyout negotiations are on-going, but the estimated amount could be north of $50 million.

BREAKING: LSU has fired Brian Kelly, @PeteNakos_ reports❌https://t.co/SrlPYqBH1K pic.twitter.com/jUjnc22WiC

— On3 (@On3sports) October 27, 2025

The 2025 campaign was projected to be LSU’s year. They had several returning starters, including talented skill players on offense like quarterback Garrett Nussemeier, who was a 4,000-yard passer last season. You had a talented receiving corps that included Aaron Anderson and Zavion Thomas.

Talented running back Caden Durham is in his second season as a starter, and 5-star RB Harlem Berry, the No. 1 running back prospect in the 2025 class, arrived from the high school ranks.

The defense was bolstered by talented transfers Jack Pyburn, Mansoor Delane and AJ Haulcy, to name just a few of the portal pickups. The NIL payout was reported to be in the neighborhood of $18 million.

All that talent on a team that was to be the most talented of Kelly’s tenure, and the LSU fan base has been subjected to a team that, offensively, is mediocre at best. Defensively, LSU has been carried all season by a swarm of defenders that kept opponents out of the endzone and allowed just 14 points per contest going into the high-stakes battle with Texas A&M.

But the Tigers’ defense finally broke on Saturday night in Death Valley. They allowed 35 points in the second half to a powerful Aggies offense that broke the back of LSU’s season and the coaching tenure of Kelly at LSU.

Kelly won 34-of-48 games at LSU, a .708 winning percentage. But in the College Football Playoff era, Kelly and the Tigers were left out in all four seasons.

In 2023, the Tigers had their most talented offense at LSU since Joey B. and company, led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels. But the defense that season was the worst to ever exit the north tunnel since the dreaded Lou Tepper years. Three losses kept the Tigers out of the playoff conversation.

Last season, the Tigers lost their fifth straight season-opener against USC in table-pounding fashion. Then proceeded to lose three straight against Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida late in the year. Four losses will keep you out of the playoffs faster than you can say “family” in your worst country-slang voice.

This season, LSU underwhelmed fans and donors by scoring 25 points or less in seven of its eight games. You don’t endear yourself as a head coach to the fan base and beat writers by attending a post-game press conference and calling a reporter spoiled for questioning LSU’s struggle to score 20 points in a victory over an unranked Florida team. In Kelly’s mind, accepting mediocrity was the order of the day.

The coaching carousel has spun off its axis with Kelly firmly strapped to a plastic pony. But truthfully, he has his glove hand wrapped and heels dug into the side of a raging bull named Irish Tornado. It was only a matter of time before that bull put a hoof to Kelly’s backside and launched him out of Tiger Stadium like a Looney-Tunes cartoon.

Four games remain in this Greek tragedy, including road games after a mercy bye week to Alabama and to Oklahoma to end the misery. Sprinkled in between are home games against Arkansas and Western Kentucky.

With three losses already this season, a storied program is plunged into chaos and a fan base into depression. A search begins for a newly anointed messiah who can bring LSU to the promised land. One who believes in what it means to coach and play at LSU and preaches the gospel of the purple and gold. Amen.