The college football world is still feeling the effects of LSU firing Brian Kelly, a move that wasn't all too surprising but sent a clear message about the Tigers' high standards amid their lackluster 2025 campaign.
Kelly had just lost to Texas A&M in a brutal 49–25 defeat, causing LSU to fall to 5–3 on the year. With LSU's championship aspirations inching farther and farther out of reach, the program decided to part ways with the former Notre Dame coach and kick off a new and hopefully brighter era.
Kelly went 34–14 during his roughly three-and-a-half seasons at LSU and notably failed to reach the national title game in any of his campaigns. LSU athletic director Scott Woodward implied that Kelly's failure to "lead us to multiple SEC and national championships" led to his dismissal, but a new ESPN report offered a slightly sadder twist on the situation.
The report penned by ESPN reporters Mark Schlabach, Max Olson and Adam Rittenberg offered five reasons Kelly was ultimately fired, and one of them was the fact that Kelly "never seemed to fit in."
Schlabach and Rittenberg wrote:
From his disastrous introductory speech at an LSU basketball game, in which he pronounced "family" with a fake Southern drawl that was thicker than roux, Kelly just never seemed to fit in. And he wasn't blind to that. This offseason, Kelly worked with a Washington, D.C.-based image consultant to try to improve his public persona.
The report went on to describe how Kelly's relationship with Louisiana governor Jeff Landry was crumbling prior to LSU's decision to fire him—one which Landry reportedly was at least somewhat involved in.
On Saturday, Kelly even seemed to fall out of favor with Gov. Jeff Landry, who in the wake of the Texas A&M loss trolled LSU on social media about raising football ticket prices for 2026. Landry was then right in the middle of the discussions that led to the school separating from Kelly, according to a source close to the situation.
In the end, Kelly didn't win enough and tried too hard to prove to LSU fans that he was one of them.
Kelly being painted as the odd man out while with the Tigers probably wasn't the biggest reason for his sacking, though it likely didn't help matters. After leaving behind his dignified legacy at Notre Dame for bigger and bolder dreams at LSU, the 64-year-old came up empty-handed season after season, and the bright lights of the uber-competitive SEC arguably proved to be too much for him in the end.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as New ESPN Report Details One Sad Reason Why Brian Kelly Was Fired by LSU.
