Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I was so sad to see rookie sensation Cam Skattebo leave yesterday with an obviously serious lower-body injury.
In today’s SI:AM:
🪓 LSU axes Kelly
🐯 Candidates for Tigers’ next coach
🐬 Tua saves his coach’s job?
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Calling (moving companies in) Baton Rouge
Coaches of college football teams with less-than-stellar records should sleep with one eye open, because no one is safe.
LSU joined the growing list of big-name schools looking for a new coach after firing Brian Kelly on Sunday. The final straw was a blowout loss to Texas A&M on Saturday, during which LSU fans streamed toward the exits before the end of the third quarter. Those who remained chanted “Fire Kelly!”
It was LSU’s third loss in its last four games, but all three losses came against playoff contenders (Ole Miss and Vanderbilt were the other two). The losses might have been understandable to outside observers, but LSU hired Kelly to win games like those, and losing all three of them knocked the Tigers out of playoff contention. That was enough to get the school to cut ties with him less than four years into a 10-year contract.
Kelly’s situation at LSU apparently deteriorated rapidly on Sunday. The coach met with athletic director Scott Woodward on Sunday afternoon and Woodward reportedly asked Kelly to fire offensive coordinator Joe Sloan. Bruce Feldman and Ralph D. Russo of The Athletic described the meeting as “very tense.”
“After Woodward told the head coach to fire his play caller, Kelly fired back that he wanted to make other staff moves Woodward wasn’t comfortable with. The situation then escalated, with the head coach pushing back hard against his boss,” The Athletic reported.
LSU confirmed later Sunday night that Kelly had been fired. There’s still one very important detail to be ironed out, however.
Kelly is owed a $53 million buyout for the remaining six-plus years of his contract. The school’s announcement said that the financial terms of his departure were still being decided. The buyout is the second-biggest in the history of college football, trailing only Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million from Texas A&M.
It’s a lot of money, but the buyout isn’t as much of an albatross as the raw dollar figure suggests. Kelly’s contract dictates that any buyout payments would be made monthly, and there’s also offset language that would decrease LSU’s obligation if Kelly lands another job.
Kelly’s firing makes LSU the eighth open power-conference coaching job, but easily the most desirable. The other two marquee openings are at Penn State and Florida, with UCLA, Virginia Tech and Arkansas in the next tier. The Tigers, Nittany Lions and Gators could engage in a bidding war for some of the same top targets like Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin, Tulane’s Jon Sumrall and Louisville’s Jeff Brohm.
The sheer number of top jobs open at this point on the calendar means we could have a truly wild coaching carousel. Oklahoma State and Stanford are the other two Power 4 schools looking for a new coach. And we’re just nine weeks into the season. Coaches like Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell, Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Auburn’s Hugh Freeze are also on the hot seat. You never know who might join them after a late-season collapse. That’s good news for Kelly, who will be looking for a new home after getting fired for the first time in his career.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Pat Forde wrote about how the Brian Kelly firing exemplifies the current state of college football.
- Bryan Fischer compiled a list of 12 people who could replace Kelly at LSU, including a couple of under-the-radar candidates.
- Forde also reported that the Dayton men’s basketball team is withholding an Iona transfer from competition for "[eligibility] matters that occurred prior to his enrollment at the university.". Sources told SI that Njie’s situation is connected to the ongoing investigation of gambling-related activity in college basketball.
- In his Week 8 NFL takeaways, Albert Breer explains why many are misjudging the Colts’ talent, dives into Jordan Love’s relationship with Aaron Rodgers and shares notes from around the league, including reflections on Nick Mangold and key performances from the Dolphins, Jets and Texans.
- Tua Tagovailoa’s four-touchdown outing may have quieted talk about Mike McDaniel’s job security—for now. Gilberto Manzano breaks down what we learned in Week 8, focusing on why the Patriots look like real contenders and how the Broncos are starting to find answers.
- Sports Illustrated releases its annual men’s college basketball complete rankings and projects how the season and the road to March Madness could unfold.
- Sports Illustrated’s men’s college basketball preseason Top 25 countdown continues at No. 5, as Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn lead a veteran squad entering the season with championship-or-bust expectations.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. A beautiful deke by the Canucks’ Kiefer Sherwood to score against the Oilers.
4. A ferocious dunk by Cooper Flagg.
3. Saquon Barkley’s 65-yard touchdown run on the Eagles’ second play of the day.
2. Jonathan Taylor’s balance along the sideline on an 80-yard touchdown run.
1. A really smart play by Bengals running back Chase Brown to abort a flea flicker and run for a first down.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Another Top College Football Coach Canned.
