LSU Football: The first red flag for Brian Kelly appeared this week

I think Brian Kelly is going to do a solid job as LSU football‘s head coach.

In fact, I think he’ll probably win a national championship within a few years. What he accomplished at Notre Dame was incredible, considering the limitations of that program.

But that doesn’t mean Kelly is a perfect coach. He’s going to make some decisions that fans don’t necessarily like.

On Wednesday, we saw one of those decisions.

While we don’t know the exact details of what went down, we know that longtime Tigers cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond, a former LSU player, won’t be back in Baton Rouge next season.

Raymond is reportedly joining Billy Napier’s staff at Florida.

Letting Corey Raymond leave LSU was a big mistake by Brian Kelly

Kelly deserves a lot of credit for bringing Frank Wilson back to LSU. Wilson is one of the best recruiters in college football and he’ll help Kelly accumulate elite talent.

Raymond, however, is also one of the best recruiters in college football. And he’s a great developer of talent (Jamal Adams, Tre’Davious White, and Greedy Williams are just a couple of the many players that Raymond has developed).

If there was one coach on staff that Kelly needed to retain, it was Raymond.

It appears that Kerry Cooks will be the replacement for Raymond.

Cooks previously served on Kelly’s staff at Notre Dame. He’s also spent time at Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

I’m sure Cooks is a good coach. He’s a former Notre Dame defensive back who spent a few years as a player in the NFL.

But he’s not Corey Raymond. He doesn’t know the landscape of Louisiana like Raymond. And he doesn’t have the resumé that Raymond has.

Letting Raymond walk was a mistake. Now instead of watching Raymond land elite talent for LSU, the Tigers will have to watch Raymond attempt to steal talent from Louisiana for the Gators.

That’s going to be tough to watch.