What Kim Mulkey Called 'Hit Job' On Brian Kelly Is Not, And Shows Her Paranoia

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana - Maybe I need to do another "hit job" on LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey, so she knows what one actually is.

READ: Kim Mulkey Doesn't Understand How Media Works

During a pointed statement at an NCAA Tournament press conference Saturday, Mulkey accused Washington Post writer Kent Babb of writing a "hit job" on LSU football coach Brian Kelly two years ago as a reason why she has continually turned down interview requests from Babb. She also said she has hired one of the best defamation lawyers in the country and plans to sue the Washington Post if a still unpublished story by Babb is inaccurate.

READ: Kim Mulkey Delivers Preemptive Strike Vs. Washington Post 

"Unfortunately, this is part of a pattern that goes back years," Mulkey said. "I told this reporter two years ago that I didn't appreciate the hit job he wrote on Brian Kelly, and that's why I wasn't going to do an interview with him."

Mulkey either didn't read this "hit job" that wasn't by Babb, or she didn't do so as closely as she - an excellent basketball strategist for decades - studies opponents' film for games. Her No. 3 seed Tigers (29-5) host No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee (30-4) Sunday (3 p.m., ABC) at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The so-called "hit job" that LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey said the Washington Post did two years ago on LSU football coach Brian Kelly (left) was not that at all. (Getty Images)  

I read the story in full Sunday, and Babb doesn't criticize Kelly at all in the Jan. 8, 2022, Washington Post feature. He mainly quotes LSU Board of Supervisors member Collis Temple Jr., who does criticize Kelly because of the $100 million contract over 10 years he had just received to leave Notre Dame a month earlier to become LSU's head football coach.

READ: LSU's Louisiana Purchase Of Brian Kelly

One of the quotes came from Temple at a Board of Supervisors meeting in which Temple said at the open forum that Kelly ranks near the top of the Southeastern Conference in salary, whereas LSU professors are at the bottom.

"That's an atrocity," Temple said.

Babb, Temple, Kelly and a struggling former high school athlete from Baton Rouge named Chris Toombs had breakfast at Louie's near LSU at that time for the story. The story mainly focuses on Toombs' struggles to make it financially as he was making $12,000 a year working at LSU's office of diversity. Temple invited Toombs to the breakfast, so he could mix with the multi-millionaire Kelly - you know, the other half.

It's a very bleeding heart liberal story that the Washington Post is known for doing. It mentions that Toombs grew up on a street in Baton Rouge named after a Confederate general and takes a shot at Baton Rouge pollution from the many oil and gas refineries in the area, which is commonly referred to as "Cancer Alley."

Babb's story was a slice of life piece on LSU and Baton Rouge. It is a liberal love letter, but it is not a hit piece on Kelly.

As a matter of fact, Kelly has never mentioned the story publicly.

Temple, not Babb, took a shot at Kelly.

LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels led the Tigers and first-year coach Brian Kelly to a watershed victory over Alabama in the 2022 season. (Getty Images)

"He hasn't earned no money," Temple says in the story. "I want to see him beat Alabama and Florida and Georgia. Then I'll tell you if he's worth $10 million (expletive deleted) dollars."

Well, Kelly did beat Alabama in his first season and won the SEC West in 2022 and has beaten Florida twice, so Temple's not even hitting Kelly any more. But Mulkey still used that story as a reason to avoid Babb?

Mulkey just doesn't want a story about her that she may not like. Her outburst on Saturday just illustrates how paranoid she is. It also was not very strategically smart. It makes her look like she has something to hide, and she may not have anything to hide. She grew unpopular at Baylor for various reasons despite all her winning there before coming to LSU. Same thing happened to Bill Belichick. They just did a documentary on it.

Babb is likely going after the controversial Baylor stories involving Brittney Griner. So what? Mulkey could've chosen to move on, but she didn't. She let her anger and overly controlling nature get the best of her. And now she will contribute to a largely liberal paper getting one of its stories read by many. 

Washington Post Writer Talks To OutKick 

Kent Babb confirmed to OutKick that he is the Washington Post reporter Mulkey attacked at the press conference Saturday and that he has been working on an extended feature on Mulkey. Head coaches like the four-time national champion Mulkey, by the way, often have extended features written about them during March Madness. Stories in which many players they've coached and coaches they've played for and coached under are contacted. That is not news, though Mulkey seems to think it's earth shattering.

"But I'm not able to say anything beyond to confirm that I am working on a profile of Kim Mulkey," Babb told OutKick.

He did freely comment on the previous "hit job" in Mulkey's mind.   

"That story was less about one coach than the economic disparity in one city and about our priorities as a nation," Babb said. "I wanted to show a slice of life of two LSU employees on the opposite ends of the school's pay spectrum. Those who have suggested that I could have written about any football coach are right. I couldn't agree more. I also said at the time that Kelly's pay wasn't outlandish in the context of college football. It was and is, I said at the time, just the cost of competing."

A line from the 2022 story after Kelly's lucrative contract is detailed does say, "That's not unique to LSU and Baton Rouge."  

Babb chose LSU and Kelly as components to the story because Kelly had just made huge news by leaving Notre Dame for LSU.

"LSU had recently signed Kelly to potentially the richest deal ever for a college coach, and because a few months earlier, I had a book published about football, class and race in New Orleans," Babb said of his book titled "Across The River: Life, Death and Football In An American City" that published in 2021. 

"I had a uniquely keen understanding about the specific gulfs that exist in the South, and specifically in Louisiana," Babb said.

South Carolina and LSU got into a pushing and shoving match on March 10 during the SEC Tournament title game won by South Carolina. (Getty Images)

Babb has not been trying to do a Mulkey "hit piece" because he is a graduate of LSU women's basketball "rival" South Carolina, as some LSU fans have been saying. And, by the way, is that a rivalry? South Carolina hasn't lost to LSU since 2012, though LSU did get more "hits" in during its most recent loss on March 10 in the SEC Tournament final.

Liberals clearly do not like Mulkey. Associated Press columnist Paul Newberry showed that in a recent column. And it would not be a surprise if Babb's upcoming feature on Mulkey - probably out Monday - shows a strong liberal sentiment as did his 2022 piece about Temple and Toombs that only included Kelly.

OutKick Readers Write

Most OutKick readers who emailed me about the story applauded Mulkey. They agreed to have their emails published here:

- "Absolutely love the pre-emptive strike. Too many in the media twist, exaggerate or flat out get stories wrong. I am not an LSU fan, but I am not following why the media can't respect that a coach would not address a disciplinary issue with a player (reference to past stories on suspended LSU star Angel Reese). Seems like a no-brainer. Folks are fired or otherwise disciplined all the time, and the standard employer answer is, 'We can't talk about that.' Lastly, it's the Washington Post - the cesspool of anti-conservatism/libertarianism. What else would you expect from someone that inherently and rightfully distrust their journalism? Maybe this journalist (Babb) isn't biased, but when you mud wrestle with pigs, well." … Roger Crawford.

MY REPLY: Standard employers are not public figures in the media constantly as have been Kim Mulkey and Angel Reese.

- "DEFUND THE MEDIA! I'm on Mulkey's side. Just leave everyone alone. Stop the bull**** sensationalism. Have some journalistic integrity. Or, get the Hell out." … Dena Steed.

- "I found myself dismissing the editorializing, in search of the facts.  I see a person getting in front of a hostile, liberal paper. Can't we acknowledge that things are upside down today?  People do get canceled.  Perhaps you know this Post journalist.  You seem to be defending him.  He wouldn't have a job if he wasn't in line with his editors, and we know which networks and papers are pushing the agenda.  So does Kim Mulkey. Not an LSU fan, never been there, don't know Mulkey, but defending her all the same." … Todd Anderson.

MY REPLY: I did not know of a Kent Babb until after the Kim Mulkey press conference on Saturday, when I found out the identity of the reporter to whom Mulkey was attacking. I communicated with him for the first time Sunday. I do tend to take up for many reporters, particularly before the story they're being criticized for has even published.    

- "Thank you for diving into all the possibilities of what the piece could be about. Mainstream media outlets are too lazy or unaware to give us a little background. Kudos to Outkick for being the best article on this." … Kenneth Camp.

LSU Women's Basketball Losing Money

Another possible story line in Babb's upcoming piece is the fact that LSU women's basketball lost $7.27 million dollars in the July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, fiscal year, as reported by The Tiger Rag Magazine in Baton Rouge last January. Mulkey's salary of $3.26 million a year, which is No. 1 in college basketball, accounts for some of that debt. But most, if not all, women's basketball programs lose money on a yearly basis.

And you get what you pay a lot for - LSU and Mulkey did just win the school's first basketball national championship in history last year. 

What is interesting about that Tiger Rag piece, which is all completely factual as it was taken from public records requests through LSU, is how LSU reacted to it. Since its publication, LSU athletic department officials have turned down Tiger Rag editor Todd Horne's routine requests to interview Kelly or Mulkey. Prior to the piece, those requests tended to be granted.

READ: Kim Mulkey Still Doesn't Get It

And remember, this is Kim Mulkey. Last November, Mulkey was not answering routine, basic questions about why a star player like Angel Reese was suspended. These were questions that virtually all major coaches throughout all college and pro sports routinely answer. But one of her "answers" included this: 

"Just write what I tell you."

Apparently, Babb is not cooperating with that Russian Pravda mentality either.