Just like he made excuses at Notre Dame and wanted to do things the "right" way. Making +10mm a year and saying we aren't going to buy players is fucking rich. Look it all goes back to the fact that he was presented with a choice: Matt House or Jamar Cain. He chose Matt House, and then god cursed him for it. He wanted Bo Davis, waited for Bo Davis, and got Bo Davis, but it was too late to make the most of the fall portal. Then, the spring portal came around, and the demand led to a too hot market for Texas, much less LSU. Now he will have to dumpster dive for DL depth at schools like ULM.
dude is lazy as shit lotta schools the "we dont buy em" excuse would be somewhat reasonable but holy shit at saying that as the HC of football at the school that just paid 7 figures for a BASEBALL player
This is like reading one of those economics articles about whether the Fed should raise interest rates
honest-ish answer "I couldn't convince the boosters any of the DL were worth the asking price :jordanshrug: geaux Tigah"
LSU’s side is saying that it was enough money that it would have sowed discord among the other folks and necessitated upping the ante on a lot of different guys, so they didn’t want to deal with the domino effect. The Texas version of events is that Texas didn't want to break the bank for Damonic. Not that they couldn't, but whatever, it's the same result anyway and certainly reflects the overall point about the DL market.
I've been thinking for a while that Brian Kelly thought this whole SEC thing would be easy for him coming from ND, given how year 1 at LSU played out. Three years later, he hired an LBC from the NFL that the majority of the players didn't like or respect, rehired the guy he should have named DC in the first place, and rehired the secondary coach that he fired via text message. On top of that, his Heisman trophy QB, two all-American WRs, and OC/best friend are all in the rearview mirror. Wasting a Heisman winning QB on a 3 loss season and a trip to Busch Gardens isn't going to fly in the SEC.
I will never believe that Kelly truly wanted the LSU job. I think he expected ND to bend over backwards to keep him when he showed them the LSU offer and he was too proud to stay when they didn't. He should have done it with USC instead of LSU, but I guess they picked Riley instead.
I think he just convinced himself it was nd holding him back vs the 30 years of “just win by 1 with my genius system” mentality.
I'm sure that was part of it, but I think he was very content to coast through our quasi ACC schedule for the rest of his career and letting the ND thing be his excuse for never winning a title.
From my folks, I can tell you that he wasn't LSU's first or second pick and that players thought Lincoln Riley was coming. Woodward, in so many ways, told Walker Howard/Jack Bech's parents that Lincoln Riley was his guy. Then when BK showed up they tried to manage that relationship and history tells the rest.
What's funny is that neither SC nor LSU screamed Brian Kelly at me. SC looks and feels more prestigious than LSU. I have a hard time seeing Kelly in California.
Louisiana got any hot DL recruits that live near golf courses? Thats your play. He used to talk about right kinda guys, which were minimally talented dudes that said yes right away.
Though we did miss BK at the first presser with spray on tan, spiked sun drenched hair in an upside down visor talking about the gnarly waves. He’s such a phony
I have it on pretty good authority that he informed his agent to throw an absolutely ridiculous number at LSU (he’s making far more than what’s reported publicly because quite a bit is coming from outside of LSU) and then when they said yes, he kinda just had to move forward with it considering ND wasn’t willing to meet with him over an extension. Didn’t even get his wife’s blessing before accepting.
Brian Kelly is a very good coach and if he wasn't such a whiny bitch he could probably win it all at ND and especially at LSU where a guy with room temp IQ that sounds like a Looney Tune won. Not sure if ND will be better off with Freeman in the long run but at least he tries his ass off and does not put some invisible ceiling on the program like Kelly did because he doesn't want to recruit
I don’t think him being a whiny bitch was the difference between him winning a natty at Notre Dame or not. Moreso talent and scheme.
It’s not like LSU players aren’t getting a ton of NIL money. He just didn’t want to deal with it with a free agent. Well I’m sure no coach does, but either retire or go earn your 8 million dollars or whatever you’re making.
Yeah, I can give a laundry list of all the things that held him back but just went with whiny bitch. He just always took the easy way out with recruiting for the most part getting guys who he knew would immediately say yes instead of trying to fight for recruits. He was not personally involved in any recruits unless they were near a golf course he wanted to try out. Weis and Freeman each personally took over in a lot of recruitments that led to big wins which was very, very rare with Kelly. He also was super loyal to his friends and would hire them and sink the program like having Brian Van Gorder as our DC and keeping on our strength and conditioning coach who was one of his best friends even though he got very sick and was going blind so our players basically did not work out at all for a year with a set plan. I just went with him being a bitch for saving some words that most people already mentioned about him.
I do not like seeing this man's face again but this was from the only game in his tenure where I liked him when they demolished Michigan so I will allow it
Bama and Ole Miss will likely be favored in our games and let's say we drop one out of OU/USC (I don't really know what they have coming back). 9 wins is probably a realistic expectation, but who tf knows.
Brian VanGorder's defense was so complex that only one guy on the entire team understood all the calls for it and he was a white walk on with limited athleticism who then suffered a major injury which made him even less athletic. He still started because he was the only one who could make all the calls and adjustments for the defense. Some of VanGorder's calls would have Jaylon Smith before he had nerve damage in his knee which ruined his pro career act as a decoy blitzer so that our walk on LB could come up the middle and blitz the QB running a 5.4 40 so he'd reach the quarterback about 2 seconds after the ball was already released. Never changed his 'system' to you know take advantage of a generational LB talent but just ran his same plays. I hate Brian VanGorder
in the days of 21p and taking on weakside ISO, he was an elite DC, and he’d find studs at safety and backer that were great vs the run. But man when people went 10p, dudes like him and Bo Pelini never changed, thought they could just play man and get after the QB and they usually got wrecked.
There was a rumor on a UGA message board from an "insider" so tifwiw that it was right out of BVG's mouth that he didn't know how to defend the spread