Brian Kelly Says He'll Never Take An NFL Job
Brian Kelly wants LSU fans to believe he's found the place he intends to call home for the rest of his career.
Kelly had a surprisingly impressive 10-4 season last year and it ended with a 63-7 win over Purdue in the Citrus Bowl. Given how hard LSU had fallen since winning the national title, Brian Kelly wasted no time turning things around.
Kelly reportedly had some serious NFL interest a few years ago when he was at Notre Dame, but he never made the jump to the pros.
Given the quick turnaround at LSU, it's fair to wonder if the NFL might come calling. Even if the teams do, the head coach of the Tigers won't spend much time listening.
Will Brian Kelly stay at LSU for the rest of his career? (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Brian Kelly remains committed to LSU and the college game.
"I would have been not handling the roster. I would not have been the GM. I would simply be the football coach, and I've been used to handling the scholarships and making final decisions on who was gettin the final say relative to anything that happened in the program. When you go to the NFL you lose a lot of that control. Not that I'm a control freak, as much as I just felt like I had all those things at Notre Dame and I was going to give all that up and I just wasn't ready to do that.," Kelly explained while on "Bussin' with the Boys."
When asked point blank if he sees himself ever taking an NFL job, Kelly responded, "No, I'm all in. This is it. I love what I do."
Kelly's tenure in Baton Rouge is off to a hot start.
The Tigers went a combined 11-12 between 2020 and 2021. The team had fallen off a cliff compared to the 15-0 national title run with Joe Burrow. The decline resulted in Ed Orgeron being shown the exit. The expectation that Kelly would turn the Tigers around, and probably do it sooner than later. However, I'm not sure anyone being honest expected it to happen in year one.
Brian Kelly says he has no interest in going to the NFL. (Photo by Joe Petro/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LSU beat Ole Miss and Alabama last year. That's not too bad for Kelly's first year, and obviously, hitting the 10-win mark is always a great achievement when taking over a new program. He's rolling, and it's not hard to understand why he doesn't want to leave Baton Rouge.
In the NFL, coaches have a lot less control. They're dealing with multi-millionaire grown men. Several players on any roster make more money than the head coach. You can't exactly boss people around.
In the college game, the head coach can be a dictator with complete control. Why give that up? That seems to be Kelly's mindset.
Brian Kelly doesn't want to coach in the NFL. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
That means LSU fans can breathe easy because Brian Kelly says he isn't going anywhere.