Brian Kelly’s LSU ouster just more proof that the coaching carousel is busted
By David Wasson
Published:
Back in the olden times, about the only ways a college football coach could get fired in the middle of a season was for extraordinary, unseemly or illegal actions off the field.
Not anymore. Especially not in 2025.
With the fresh millions being pumped into big-time college football programs in the Wild West era of Name, Image and Likeness, the power structure that used to insulate coaches from midseason dismissals has virtually evaporated. The latest proof of that exploded Sunday night, as LSU abruptly fired coach Brian Kelly in the middle of his 4th season in Baton Rouge.
Kelly’s crime? The outward argument is that the Tigers simply aren’t good enough anymore. That case carries a kernel of truth, in that LSU’s current 5-3 overall record and 2-3 mark in SEC play is not what anyone wants on the bayou – not after starting the season ranked in the top 10 and moving as high as No. 3 in the nation before high-profile losses against ranked SEC teams in Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M.
Still, it wasn’t like Kelly was a losing coach. Not by a fair stretch. The former Notre Dame, Cincinnati and Central Michigan boss got shown the door by LSU after winning 34 of 48 games for the Tigers – a 70.83% winning rate that is practically identical to his 70.75% overall Division I-A winning rate (179-74).
So why did LSU frantically mash the ejector-seat button on Kelly? In short, it is the same reason Penn State canned James Franklin just 2 weeks ago despite Franklin winning 69.8% of his games in State College…
Money.
The power in college football no longer lies primarily in the hands of the people who win the games – people like Kelly and Franklin, who won at every stop and likely will win more at their next stop should they choose to have one. The power in college football no longer lies in the athletic directors or even the school presidents, who often wait until a full season’s worth of tumult can be measured from 35,000 feet. What were essentially private firms went public and the new stockholders want their votes.
No, the power now lies in the big-money boosters – the fat cats who write the checks that fund not only the massive coaching salaries and otherworldly buyouts (Franklin is owed $49 million from Penn State and Kelly is reportedly owed more than $53 million – though both are subject to mitigation clauses to offset a portion against future earnings) but also fund the massive NIL budgets every power program must have.
Because without players, well, even Knute Rockne and Nick Saban combined couldn’t win a single game. And because the check-strokers can threaten to withhold their signatures on future donations at a whim, the man in the middle of it all – the coach – is the weak link in the chain.
This was already shaping up to be the wildest coaching carousel in anyone’s memory, what with Penn State and Florida (after firing Billy Napier for the sole reason of just being supremely mediocre at his job) joining the likes of Oklahoma State (Mike Gundy), Oregon State (Trent Bray), Arkansas (Sam Pittman), UCLA (DeShaun Foster), Virginia Tech (Brent Pry), Stanford (Troy Taylor), Colorado State (Jay Norvell), UAB (Trent Dilfer) and Kent State (Kenni Burns) all being shown the door for one reason or another.
And that doesn’t even include the hot-seat positions held by Mike Norvell at Florida State (who has got to be checking caller ID every time his cellphone rings these days), Hugh Freeze at Auburn (who practically begged for and didn’t get a statement of support from his athletic director last week) and Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell (who has lost 10 straight against Power 4 teams and finally scored for the first time in 3 games last weekend against Oregon during a 6th-straight defeat).
We live in a world right now where, within days and before your neighborhood kids finishing housing the Halloween candy, we could see a full quarter of the teams in the SEC operating under interim coaches. And that doesn’t even include the Mark Stoops Watch going on in Kentucky or whatever might become of Jeff Lebby at Mississippi State by season’s end.
Why? Everyone wants to win now. Because just being good isn’t good enough – Curt Cignetti is proving that in real time at Indiana, a place that was only 200 games below .500 all-time but is about to be a CFP fixture. And because the right-now culture of the 21st century – along with the rivers of cash flowing from boosters to players gives them an unfair say – means coaches are more expendable than ever. Fire our guy? Sure… what is another hefty buyout check if it means we might be able to win 1-2 more games next year than this year!
The old saying, which originated back in those olden times, is that coaches are hired to be fired. Never has it been more true than Sunday night in Baton Rouge, where another winning coach turned in his playbook and was shown the door.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
