LSU head coach Brian Kelly did himself no favors when he recently backtracked previous comments about his former team, Notre Dame.
In an interview with CBS Sports, Kelly, who just finished his third season at LSU, attempted some revisionist history when discussing why he left South Bend for Baton Rouge following the 2021 season.
“I wasn’t leaving Notre Dame because I couldn’t win a championship,” Kelly said. “I chose a different path because I wanted a different challenge.”
His most recent comments are a direct contrast to those he made in the spring of 2022, months after leaving Notre Dame for LSU.
“I want to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship,” Kelly told The Associated Press in April 2022.
As much as Kelly might want to spin those initial comments nearly three years later, no one should buy it
Based on his own words, he believed Notre Dame didn’t do enough to give him the tools necessary to win a national championship.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, who was Kelly’s defensive coordinator in 2021, has exposed how fraudulent that idea is by leading the Irish to their first national championship game appearance since 2012, Kelly’s third season leading the program. Notre Dame lost to Alabama, 42-14, in the biggest blowout in BCS championship history that season.
Kelly went 0-2 in the College Football Playoff, losing to Clemson, 30-3, in 2018, and Alabama, 31-14, in 2020.
He’s yet to reach the CFP at LSU, where he has a 29-11 record in three seasons. Meanwhile, Notre Dame is 33-8 during that span, including three CFP wins this season.
CFP No. 5 Notre Dame (14-1) plays No. 6 Ohio State (13-2) in the national championship game on Monday in Atlanta.
Freeman’s success has put Kelly’s tenure under a different light. As much as the LSU head coach tries to change the narrative, he can’t wiggle past his previous comments.
He left Notre Dame to have a better shot at winning a title, yet the Irish are a win away from a national championship. Kelly misplayed his hand, and no attempt to rewrite history will change that.
