It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the average observer.
Why would Brian Kelly abandon an 11-1 football team on the precipice of reaching the College Football Playoff for the third time in four years and make the move less than one week before finding out whether or not that would be Notre Dame’s reality?
The thing is, the average observer wasn’t on the other end of a 45-minute phone call with LSU director of athletics Scott Woodward. That’s what changed everything.
The call occurred sometime within 24 hours of Kelly and the Fighting Irish demolishing Stanford 45-14 this past Saturday. Immediately afterward, Kelly told reporters in the visitor’s press conference room that he believed he had one of the four best teams in the country.
Now Kelly has control of a 6-6 LSU team that needed to upset Texas A&M by a field goal in the regular-season finale to avoid missing out on a bowl game for the second consecutive year. From perennial top-10 team to one that has 11 losses in the last two seasons.
And it’s all because of that life-changing call with Woodward.
“When you talk to Scott Woodward, he has a clear way of communicating,” Kelly said in his introductory press conference on LSU’s campus Wednesday afternoon. “It was 45 minutes, and I had an understanding of where LSU was from a commitment [standpoint] and how this was going to look. So, I’d say that’s pretty quick.”
It had to be quick. It had to be convincing. It had to be compelling.
Or did it?
Kelly was on the Dan Patrick Show Wednesday morning. Patrick asked him if he’d be in Baton Rouge today if Notre Dame was the No. 3 team in the College Football Playoff rankings as opposed to on the outside looking in at No. 6.
His answer suggested that Woodward’s pitch didn’t need to be as apparently perfect as he made it sound. Even a more secure shot of playing for a national championship at Notre Dame might not have kept Kelly in South Bend instead of abruptly shipping himself south.
“Oh, I don’t know Dan,” Kelly said. “Those are tough questions, you know. I mean, I’m a pretty honest guy and would tell you. But those are so hard to answer relative to would I have done something different in that situation. I really couldn't tell you, to be honest with you, because it’s not the case. I really couldn’t answer that question.”
What a word salad. Maybe he was still caught up in Woodward's pitch. And what was that pitch, anyway? It must have had to do with a lot of what LSU has and maybe what Notre Dame doesn't — even if Kelly denied that narrative at the beginning of his interview with Patrick.
Over and over again, Kelly harped on the resources LSU is able to provide. He coughed up the word “alignment” a plethora of times. Kelly was asked point-blank if he has a better chance of winning national championships at LSU than any of his previous coaching stops. Considering Notre Dame is the only one of those that has won titles in its history, it was essentially a question pitting the Irish against the Tigers.
“I wouldn't imply that,” Kelly said. “I would only say that this opportunity, for me, was one that I was ready for an excited to take on. It had to do with everything I talked about. I think each opportunity you measure differently, and this opportunity is clearly different than any other I've had.”
The reporter didn't call Notre Dame by name. Kelly himself avoided mentioning Notre Dame's name later in his press conference when he alluded to it as "the other place I was at." Five days after coaching Notre Dame to the 113th victory of his tenure, an all-time record, and less than 48 hours after accepting the LSU job and Kelly couldn't say "Notre Dame" in the context of what he was talking about — a Garth Brooks concert at Notre Dame Stadium.
Sure, Kelly isn't at LSU without that 45-minute talk with Woodard. The Tigers had to come calling, and they did. But once that happened, it didn't take long for Kelly to make up his mind. That might say more about LSU than it does Notre Dame, but it is still at least a little bit of a reflection of what Kelly ultimately thought of the latter.
Kelly walked away from one of the best football teams in the country. He said so himself. That seems hard to do. In this case, it came across as rather easy — especially considering Kelly said he was not actively looking leave.
"There was no back and forth," Kelly said. "We had a very substantive conversation. And that was it."
And that was it, indeed. Oh, and a 10-year, $95 million contract with favorable incentives goes a long way too. Anybody would be remiss without mentioning that, of course.
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