Brian Kelly is headed to the SEC.
Kelly will leave Notre Dame after 12 years as head coach, BlueandGold.com can confirm, and is accepting the same position at LSU. The news was first reported by Yahoo! Sports. Earlier Monday, The Athletic reported LSU was making an “aggressive push” for him.
Yahoo! Sports’ Pete Thamel reports an announcement could come as early as Tuesday.
Kelly is 113-40 in 12 seasons at Notre Dame and just completed an 11-1 regular season on Saturday with a win at Stanford — the team’s fifth straight year with double-digit wins. The Irish are No. 6 in the College Football Playoff top 25 and still in the mix for a spot in the top four. They have made the CFP in two of the past three seasons.
Earlier this year, Kelly passed Knute Rockne as the program’s all-time winningest coach. He was one season away from tying Rockne as the longest-tenured coach in team history.
Kelly’s 2021 Notre Dame salary is not known because his contract is not public, but FootballScoop reports his annual compensation is around $7 million. LSU paid former head coach Ed Orgeron just more than $9 million this year, per USA Today Sports’ salary database, the second-highest salary of any FBS head coach. The Tigers fired him in October, though he coached through the season.
In December 2019, Notre Dame gave Kelly an extension through the 2024 season. The team announced it in September 2020.
Kelly shot down speculation of his candidacy at USC earlier this month.
“Where your name is brought up is where they probably want you to look so you’re not looking where you should be looking.” Kelly said of USC. “It’s a smokescreen. This time of the year, you throw names out there so people don’t look where they’re supposed to look.”
Asked if he could see himself leaving Notre Dame for another job on his own volition, Kelly said no.
“Unless that fairy godmother comes by with a $250 million check, my wife would want to take a look at it first,” Kelly said.
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