A Notre Dame national title would add pressure to Brian Kelly in 2025
By: Luke Hubbard - Death Valley Insider
It's no secret that LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly is going to be under a whole lot of pressure to succeed in 2025. After a 12-year career at Notre Dame which saw him reach the national championship in 2013, only to be blown out by Alabama, 42-14, Kelly made the surprising decision to come to the SEC and coach the LSU Tigers.
Since arriving on campus in 2022, Kelly has led the Tigers to the SEC Championship game and produced a Heisman Trophy winner, but has yet to reach the College Football Playoff, which has now been expanded to 12 teams.
With the playoff expansion, it felt like 2024 was going to be a great season for the Tigers. They'd finished the regular season ranked in the top-15 in both seasons under Kelly, and after completely revamping their defensive coaching staff, it felt like it was finally time to get over that hump.
That wasn't the case, though. The Tigers, who started 6-1 and showed some promise, went on a three-game losing streak in the middle of the year and finished the season 9-4 with a Texas Bowl win over Baylor. The three game losing streak had fans calling for Kelly's job, but with such a large buyout and a lot of internal support, that was never going to happen.
After the season was over, Kelly was very blunt, saying that LSU didn't have the ability to compete with the Texas A&Ms, Ohio States and Michigans of the world when it came to NIL and he called on the donors and fans to help out. He even started his million dollar match campaign which saw him match ever dollar donated - up to a million dollars - to LSU Football over a two month span. An anonymous donor also pledge to do the same, meaning for every dollar donated to LSU Football, two more were being added to the pot as well.
Since that day, Kelly has gone absolutely berserk in the transfer portal. He signed the No. 1 class and holds commitments from nine top-150 prospects. He's going all in on 2025 and needs it to payoff.
So, there was already massive amounts of pressure on Kelly in 2025, but to make matters worse, his former team, Notre Dame, has already made it to the national championship game under third-year Head Coach Marcus Freeman.
Kelly left Notre Dame not only for a new challenge, but to go somewhere he felt could give him "the resources to win a national championship," he said when he was hired at LSU.
In 12 years in South Bend, Kelly made the national title one time and the College Football Playoff twice, never winning a game in the four-team format.
If Notre Dame was to beat Ohio State in the national championship, their would be even more pressure on Kelly to win in 2025. In just three seasons, Marcus Freeman will have done the thing Kelly left Notre Dame and came to LSU to do.
I'm not saying Kelly needs to go out and win the championship in 2025, but he absolutely needs to make the College Football Playoff. He gets Garrett Nussmeier and Harold Perkins back, he retained both of his coordinators despite some head coaching interest, he got the NIL support he was asking for and spent big in the transfer portal. He cannot let that go to waste. A College Football Playoff berth is the bare minimum. He needs to make it and win at least a game or two to show the LSU faithful they have what it takes to win under his guidance.
By: Luke Hubbard - Death Valley Insider
It's no secret that LSU Head Coach Brian Kelly is going to be under a whole lot of pressure to succeed in 2025. After a 12-year career at Notre Dame which saw him reach the national championship in 2013, only to be blown out by Alabama, 42-14, Kelly made the surprising decision to come to the SEC and coach the LSU Tigers.
Since arriving on campus in 2022, Kelly has led the Tigers to the SEC Championship game and produced a Heisman Trophy winner, but has yet to reach the College Football Playoff, which has now been expanded to 12 teams.
With the playoff expansion, it felt like 2024 was going to be a great season for the Tigers. They'd finished the regular season ranked in the top-15 in both seasons under Kelly, and after completely revamping their defensive coaching staff, it felt like it was finally time to get over that hump.
That wasn't the case, though. The Tigers, who started 6-1 and showed some promise, went on a three-game losing streak in the middle of the year and finished the season 9-4 with a Texas Bowl win over Baylor. The three game losing streak had fans calling for Kelly's job, but with such a large buyout and a lot of internal support, that was never going to happen.
After the season was over, Kelly was very blunt, saying that LSU didn't have the ability to compete with the Texas A&Ms, Ohio States and Michigans of the world when it came to NIL and he called on the donors and fans to help out. He even started his million dollar match campaign which saw him match ever dollar donated - up to a million dollars - to LSU Football over a two month span. An anonymous donor also pledge to do the same, meaning for every dollar donated to LSU Football, two more were being added to the pot as well.
Since that day, Kelly has gone absolutely berserk in the transfer portal. He signed the No. 1 class and holds commitments from nine top-150 prospects. He's going all in on 2025 and needs it to payoff.
So, there was already massive amounts of pressure on Kelly in 2025, but to make matters worse, his former team, Notre Dame, has already made it to the national championship game under third-year Head Coach Marcus Freeman.
Kelly left Notre Dame not only for a new challenge, but to go somewhere he felt could give him "the resources to win a national championship," he said when he was hired at LSU.
In 12 years in South Bend, Kelly made the national title one time and the College Football Playoff twice, never winning a game in the four-team format.
If Notre Dame was to beat Ohio State in the national championship, their would be even more pressure on Kelly to win in 2025. In just three seasons, Marcus Freeman will have done the thing Kelly left Notre Dame and came to LSU to do.
I'm not saying Kelly needs to go out and win the championship in 2025, but he absolutely needs to make the College Football Playoff. He gets Garrett Nussmeier and Harold Perkins back, he retained both of his coordinators despite some head coaching interest, he got the NIL support he was asking for and spent big in the transfer portal. He cannot let that go to waste. A College Football Playoff berth is the bare minimum. He needs to make it and win at least a game or two to show the LSU faithful they have what it takes to win under his guidance.
