The 2025 college football season has been a wild one - and we're barely halfway through it. More than 10 head coaches have been fired since the start of the season, and Brian Kelly's name is now on that list. With lots of football left to be played this season, the coaching carousel is on pace to set records this season.
LSU made the bombshell move to fire Kelly after 3.5 seasons on Sunday night. The final nail in the coffin was a 49-25 blowout loss to Texas A&M on Saturday night in Death Valley. The move came after fans lost patience with Kelly following yet another underwhelming season. Kelly's best season at LSU came in 2021, and his teams have failed to put it all together since, resulting in a 34-14 overall record and 19-10 record in SEC play for Kelly's LSU tenure. The Tigers never made the College Football Playoff under Kelly and made the SEC Championship Game just once.
Several power conference jobs are also already available. Florida, Penn State, Arkansas, Virginia Tech, and UCLA all have their appeals, but there is no college football job like LSU.
LSU is not just another college football job
The LSU head coaching job is immediately the best job on the market following Kelly's firing. LSU has everything a coach needs to be successful, which is why the previous three coaches before Kelly - Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Ed Orgeron - all brought national titles to LSU by the end of their 4th seasons.
From a historical perspective, not many teams can compete with LSU's success on the national stage. In the BCS/CFP era (since 1998), only three FBS programs have won three or more national titles: Alabama, Ohio State, and LSU. Since 2000, LSU has a total of 16 finishes in the AP top-20 and nine in the top-10. LSU's 247 wins in that span is tied with Alabama for the 6th-most in the country, with LSU winning at least eight games in all but two seasons.
On the recruiting trail, LSU has a major advantage over other SEC school. LSU is the only power conference school in the state, which makes Baton Rouge the overwhelming target destination for all of the top players in Louisiana. The Bayou State is full of elite prospects, and whoever takes the LSU job next will automatically have an advantage over every other SEC team on the recruiting trail.
From an administrative perspective, LSU has all of the resources available that a college football coach would want. Athletic Director Scott Woodward is an LSU alum and has shown he is willing to pull out all the stops to put his teams in the best position to win. It's also worth noting he's hired Kim Mulkey (women's basketball) and Jay Johnson (baseball), who have both delivered titles at LSU, with Johnson winning two over the last three years.
LSU also has tremendous support in the NIL landscape. The program spent approximately $18 million to construct the 2025 football roster, and it wouldn't be surprising to see that number increase in the coming years. All of these factors make LSU a target job for just about every college football coach out there.