LSU Football: Brian Kelly would be a home run hire for the Tigers

LSU football‘s coaching search has taken plenty of twists and turns over the last week.

Lincoln Riley and Jimbo Fisher were thought to be Tigers athletic director Scott Woodward’s top targets.

Riley, however, took the USC job instead of heading south to Baton Rouge.

And Fisher appears to be staying put in College Station (I’m not sure he would be well received by Tigers fans after losing to Ed Orgeron this past weekend anyway).

Billy Napier was believed to be LSU’s “fallback option”, but Florida quickly moved to hire Napier to replace Dan Mullen in Gainesville.

A new top target for LSU football?

Football Scoop reported on Monday that LSU is pursuing Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to replace Orgeron.

I think this would be a fantastic hire, even though it’s a bit of an odd fit.

Kelly has never coached in the south. The Massachusetts native has essentially spent his entire career in the midwest.

But that shouldn’t eliminate him from being an option for the Tigers.

Kelly’s been successful everywhere’s been. He turned Cincinnati into a 12 win program. And he has Notre Dame regularly in the College Football Playoff discussion.

It’s not easy to win at Notre Dame. If Kelly can get The Fighting Irish to the playoff, I have no doubt that he could win a national championship at LSU.

The best thing about Kelly is that he knows how to deal with adversity. Kelly looked like he was on the hot seat at Notre Dame in 2016. The Irish went 4-8 in 2016, leading some folks to believe that Kelly was on his way out of South Bend.

Instead, Kelly made some major staff changes and immediately turned things around. Notre Dame went 10-3 in 2017. In 2018, Notre Dame won 12 games and finished the season ranked No. 5 in the AP Poll.

Kelly might not be the dream hire that LSU fans were hoping for, but he’s a consistent winner who has proved for over two decades that he can successfully lead a program.

The Tigers could do a lot worse.