LSU Football: Brian Kelly let another key assistant go to a rival

LSU football head coach Brian Kelly has built a nice inaugural staff in Baton Rouge, but he’s made some questionable decisions, too.

The first questionable decision was letting longtime Tigers cornerbacks coach Corey Raymond leave LSU to take the same position with the Florida Gators.

Raymond is THE main reason that LSU has been known as DBU over the last decade. He was an invaluable resource on the recruiting trail.

To make matters worse, Kelly hired Robert Steeples to replace Raymond.

Steeples might be a good coach, but he could also be a total bust. Steeples has no on-field college coaching experience. We just don’t know yet. He was an assistant special teams coach last season for the Minnesota Vikings. Before that, he was a high school football coach.

I’d take Raymond 10 times out of 10 over Steeples (no offense to Steeples).

LSU Football head coach Brian Kelly let another key assistant go to a rival

Kelly let another key LSU figure go to Florida this week.

Well, kinda.

Technically, Russ Callaway, who was hired by Florida this week as an analyst, wasn’t an LSU assistant anymore. He worked last season as an offensive assistant with the New York Giants.

Callaway, however, was an analyst for LSU in 2020. He was described by Ed Orgeron as Steve Ensminger’s right-hand man. The former LSU assistant is viewed as a rising star in the business.

If you’re Kelly, how do you not get to Callaway before Florida does? That’s just yet another recruiting connection that Florida is going to have in Louisiana now. Plus he’s a good assistant coach.

If Kelly would’ve brought Callaway back to Baton Rouge, he would’ve had a built-in option to replace anyone on his staff in the event of a departure. Plus he already knows the landscape of recruiting in Louisiana.

I like Kelly. I think he has the potential to do great things at LSU. But it feels like he can be hard-headed at times. Hopefully this doesn’t come back to bite the Tigers.