Life comes at you fast. Brian Kelly learned that lesson on Sunday, as he was fired by LSU, following the Tigers loss to Texas A&M.
Firing Kelly couldn't have been an easy decision for LSU, which, according to Pete Nakos of On3.com, will pay Kelly a $54 million buyout. He signed a massive deal with the Tigers to leave Notre Dame.
Things looked good early on. He coached the Tigers to the SEC championship game, and a win over Alabama. Jayden Daniels also won the Heisman Trophy.
However, things went downhill quickly for Kelly this season. Fans shouldn't feel bad for him, though. He'll be a very rich man, and in some ways, he has the Michigan Wolverines to thank.
Losing Bryce Underwood cost Brian Kelly
If Bryce Underwood were on the LSU roster, this would have a much different feel. Kelly might still be the head coach. It would at least make it harder to fire Brian Kelly because the Tigers wouldn't want to risk losing Underwood, who would probably be a redshirt if he signed with the Tigers.
Still, it would have made it more difficult to fire Kelly. The leash would not have been that short. The former Notre Dame head coach did win 70.8 percent of his games with the Tigers. He had two consecutive 10-wins season to open his SEC coaching career, but LSU dropped to 9-4 last season and lost its third game of 2025 already on Saturday night.
Kelly will probably land on his feet. He did win 147 games between LSU and Notre Dame. Central Michigan is the only program where he didn't win at least 70 percent of his games. So he is a good coach. The LSU job was just never a good fit.
At least he got that buyout, though. And one reason for that is Underwood wearing a winged helmet. If that recruitment had gone differently, it's easy to see how that could have allowed more grace than Kelly was shown as the Tigers kicked him to the curb.