Before Brian Kelly, Ed Orgeron and Les Miles both won National Championships in their third seasons while it took Nick Saban four years to win LSU a Title. Given that LSU has wrapped up year three under Brian Kelly, many fans are disappointed that Brian Kelly hasn't won a National Championship yet, or made the College Football Playoff. What many fail to acknowledge or give Brian Kelly credit for is the fact that Kelly is practically coaching a different sport.
While many may have expected Brian Kelly should do the same given the track record, he had at Notre Dame and the salary LSU decided to pay him his situation was much worse coming in than any of the Coaches that came before him.
For starters, Brian Kelly has to deal with the newest form of the transfer portal where players can instantly transfer rather than sitting out a year. After Ed Orgeron was fired LSU lost 17 players to the transfer portal in addition to the 10 players LSU lost to the NFL Draft. When Kelly took over the roster there were just 39 scholarship players on the roster which meant he had to take a ton of players that he typically wouldn't have recruited.
After Ed Orgeron was fired, several players decommitted ending up elsewhere including Aaron Anderson, Jake Johnson, and TreVonte Citizen.
Brian Kelly also has to deal with competing on the recruiting trail in the NIL Era which makes it tougher to lock down the State on the Recruiting Trail. This recruiting cycle, we saw Brian Kelly and his staff lose the Nation's top recruit to Michigan because the third richest man in the world ponied up $12 million to offer Bryce Underwood.
Under Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Ed Oregron, LSU was able to recruit players because of the LSU brand and were able to keep players in the program developing. Now, Brian Kelly can even lose starters if they aren't happy enough to the transfer portal which is something his predecessors never had to deal with.
This offseason, Brian Kelly has already lost a starter in CJ Daniels and Sage Ryan while he's also lost players who could've started next season in Ka'Morreun Pimpton, Jordan Allen, Da'Shawn Womack, Kylin Jackson, and Jay'Viar Suggs along with some depth players. Now Brian Kelly can add players via the transfer portal as well but, a lot of depth across College Football has been wiped out.
The expectations on Brian Kelly are too high thus far
While its fair to be disappointed in Brian Kelly, based on what he took over and how the sport operates, the expectations being as high as they've been have been a bit unfair. The name of the game currently is NIL as schools openly boast about how much they're spending which makes roster building far too difficult. As the NCAA looks to better govern the system, the rules should become clearer and with the Revenue sharing coming we should see a tip in excessive spending. Frankly, Brian Kelly is playing on a field where winning is much harder and while it may not be happening yet, LSU is heading in the right direction.