Brian Kelly
Now
Career arc
Bowls and playoffs: 10-6 · won 0 of 1 national title game
Cincinnati’06W’07W’08LNotre Dame’10W’11L’12L’13W’14W’15L’17W’18L’19W’20LLSU’22W’23W’24W
Show all 16 games
2006International BowlW 27-24
2007PapaJohns.com BowlW 31-21
2008Orange BowlL 7-20
Notre Dame
2010Sun BowlW 33-17
2011Champs Sports BowlL 14-18
2012BCS title gameL 14-42
2013Pinstripe BowlW 29-16
2014Music City BowlW 31-28
2015Fiesta BowlL 28-44
2017Citrus BowlW 21-17
2018 semiCotton Bowl ClassicL 3-30
2019Camping World BowlW 33-9
2020 semiRose BowlL 14-31
LSU
2022Citrus BowlW 63-7
2023ReliaQuest BowlW 35-31
2024Texas BowlW 44-31
Report card
Top-quarter on both sides of the ball — 78th percentile offense, 77th percentile defense.
LSU, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.
Offense
Defense
Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.
Fans
No fan talk about him on our list yet. His record is on Career.
Stats
Big games
Pick a job to see its years on their own.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
3-3 against his rivals at Central Michigan. Winless in 3 tries against Joe Novak.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
5-1 against his rivals at Cincinnati. Nobody he faced three or more times there has a winning record against him.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
16-13 against his rivals at Notre Dame. Just 1-3 against Dabo Swinney.
Signature games
These losses tie at the model's current max -- an editorial pick among a real tie, not a clean ranking.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
7-7 against his rivals at LSU. Nobody he faced three or more times there has a winning record against him.
Signature games
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
31-24 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against Jimbo Fisher.
Signature games
These losses tie at the model's current max -- an editorial pick among a real tie, not a clean ranking.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
ATS is his record against the spread: did his team beat the closing betting line, winning by more than it or losing by less? Lines start in 2013; a dash means fewer than 6 of those games had one. One-score games carry no spread record: a big favorite that wins a close game has almost always failed to cover, so that number would say nothing about the coach.
Defining games during this era
From our list of the 50 most defining games of the Playoff era, ranked by how much each game mattered, not by date.
How he plays
Run/pass mix, by field position
Passed more than the situation called for under Denbrock and Sloan.
3,216 run and pass snaps at LSU, 2022–2025, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points.
Pass rate, stint by stint
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Building the roster
Six numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
His recruiting, really
His 4 ranked LSU classes of his own have averaged #9 nationally — best #6, worst #12.
Notre DameLSUAcross every program: 8 ranked classes of his own, averaging #11 nationally.
His class — he had the full signing cycle
Rank is each signing class’s national recruiting rank (#1 is best). Only a class he had a full signing cycle to build counts as his.
Followed him here
Notre Dame→LSU2022- Jay Bramblett P
Cincinnati→Notre Dame2010Players who transferred from his old program to his new one through the portal in the same year he made the move. Name-matching across data sources misses some, so every count is a floor, not an exact number.
Roster ownership
Roster ownership
of his 2025 roster arrived on his watch — 108 of 112 players. The other 4 are holdovers from before he was hired.
Of his own players on this roster, 19% came through the transfer portal; the rest are non-portal arrivals (high-school signees, JUCO transfers, walk-ons).
23% of his 210 new players since 2022 came through the portal (FBS programs, same seasons: 22%). His share was 21% in 2022 and 33% in 2025.
Graded on the players who arrived and the players who left together, his portal seasons came out better than most FBS programs’ in 1 and worse than most in 1 of the 4 seasons graded. our read
Each player counts once, in the season he arrived. 2021, the first season of portal tracking here, is left off because its arrival records look incomplete (about 31 new players per FBS team, against 52 in 2022). Portal grade: the site’s position-value-weighted scoring (the same engine as the Portal Heat feed and the “Who won the portal” grade): the value of the players who came in minus the value of the ones who left, ranked against every FBS program’s grade that same season. A season with fewer than 4 transfers in and out is not graded.
“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.
Size up front
Size up front
Offensive linemen on his LSU rosters have averaged 7 lb heavier than the FBS average (2022–2025) — heavier than 86% of FBS coaching runs since 2010. In the three seasons before he arrived, LSU’s line averaged 13 lb heavier than the FBS average.
Average listed weight of every offensive lineman on each season’s roster, holdovers included, against every FBS roster that season (2010 on; a program needs 3+ seasons under him to appear). Weights are the ones programs publish, and programs list differently. This describes size only — not scheme, and not quality.
Where he recruits
is his biggest recruiting state: 50 of 97 signees (52%) across his 2022–2025 tenure, drawn from 17 states in all. Next: TX (17).
72% of his signees come from LA and its 3 border states (TX 17, MS 2, AR 1).
Off this map: 3 signees to the west (CA, NV, others) and 2 to the north (MI, MN).
- median hometown distance
- 188 mi
- within 100 mi
- 41%
- within 500 mi
- 76%
- beyond 1,000 mi
- 8%
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
The NFL pipeline
The NFL pipeline
players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. He brought in 15 of them himself; 11 arrived under Ed Orgeron. 5 went in the first round.
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | R1.06 | Mansoor Delane | Cornerback |  Kansas City Chiefs | |
| 2026 | R3.14 | A.J. Haulcy | Safety |  Indianapolis Colts | |
| 2026 | R3.25 | Zavion Thomas | Wide Receiver |  Chicago Bears | |
| 2026 | R6.04 | Bauer Sharp | Tight End |  Tampa Bay Buccaneers | |
| 2026 | R6.09 | Barion Brown | Wide Receiver |  New Orleans Saints | |
| 2026 | R6.34 | Harold Perkins Jr. | Linebacker |  Atlanta Falcons | |
| 2026 | R7.33 | Garrett Nussmeier | Quarterback | Kansas City Chiefs | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2025 | R1.04 | Will Campbell | Offensive Tackle |  New England Patriots |
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | R2.10 | Mason Taylor | Tight End |  New York Jets | |
| 2025 | R3.27 | Emery Jones Jr. | Offensive Tackle |  Baltimore Ravens | |
| 2025 | R3.37 | Sai'vion Jones | Defensive Edge |  Denver Broncos | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2025 | R5.08 | Bradyn Swinson | Defensive Edge | New England Patriots | |
| 2025 | R5.35 | Miles Frazier | Offensive Guard |  Detroit Lions | |
| 2025 | R7.27 | Garrett Dellinger | Offensive Guard | Baltimore Ravens | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2024 | R1.02 | Jayden Daniels | Quarterback |  Washington Commanders | |
| 2024 | R1.06 | Malik Nabers | Wide Receiver |  New York Giants | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2024 | R1.23 | Brian Thomas Jr. | Wide Receiver |  Jacksonville Jaguars | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2024 | R2.16 | Maason Smith | Defensive Tackle | Jacksonville Jaguars | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2024 | R4.16 | Jordan Jefferson | Defensive Tackle | Jacksonville Jaguars | |
| 2024 | R6.13 | Mekhi Wingo | Defensive Tackle | Detroit Lions | |
| 2023 | R2.10 | BJ Ojulari | Outside Linebacker |  Arizona Cardinals | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2023 | R4.06 | Anthony Bradford | Offensive Guard |  Seattle Seahawks | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2023 | R4.32 | Jay Ward | Safety |  Minnesota Vikings | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2023 | R5.07 | Jaquelin Roy | Defensive Tackle | Minnesota Vikings | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2023 | R6.10 | Kayshon Boutte | Wide Receiver | New England Patriots | recruited under Ed Orgeron |
| 2023 | R6.27 | Jarrick Bernard-Converse | Cornerback |  New York Jets |
A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.
News
In his own words
Every quote, back to March 2026
In his own words
College football now has become such that each and every week, the margin for victory is not great
They’re all unique, right? You know, we’re talking about ACC, Big 12, and and and the Big Ten
You hate hearing the rumors, because that means somebody’s job is being evaluated
My son sent me that
We’re opening it up to more teams. I can’t see how that’s a bad thing
I just wasn’t prepared to do it until we got a full commitment from another Heisman Trophy winner
Well, I think I was mischaracterized, only in the sense that I didn’t leave Notre Dame because they couldn’t win a national championship
College football is not in a bad place
More than 40, I’ll tell you that
I don’t know that I’ve made the decision that I want to get back in, as all the things we’ve talked about, I’d want to see some changes. But I think while you wait, you need to work
And so, I need to stay in the game. My first order of business is this next two, three weeks, I’m gonna be visiting some places to see spring ball, get a chance to see some things relative to the football side, the operational side, some of the things we talked about today with NIL, transfer and calendar, and get a temperature in the spring for some things.
And so, that’s really my focus right now
Career
Coaching career
The arc of his career is on Now.
Builder meaningfully raised a program that wasn't one · Inheritor inherited a power and neither built it higher nor let it collapse · Steady no large move in either direction on our stature ladder
4th-best LSU tenure of 16 by the numbers.
Followed Ed Orgeron (2016–2021) · succeeded by Frank Wilson (2025).
| Season | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 10-4 | 10-3 | 9-4 | 5-3 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | W bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | Mike Denbrock | Mike Denbrock | Joe Sloan / Cortez Hankton | Joe Sloan / Cortez Hankton | |
| DC | Matt House | Matt House | Blake Baker | Blake Baker | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | 92 | 99 | 80 | 22 | |
| Defense | 86 | 6 | 47 | 75 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | 45.8 | 48.5 | 56.1 | 48.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 35.6 | 31.7 | 54.5 | 41.2 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 39.0 | 38.5 | 40.9 | 22.0 | |
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
4 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): Jayden Daniels (2023), Malik Nabers (2023), Will Campbell (2024), Mansoor Delane (2025)
AI Narratives — “LSU's Offseason Moves Create Starter Risks” and 5 more on the team page.
12th-best Notre Dame tenure of 15 by the numbers.
Followed Charlie Weis (2005–2009) · succeeded by Marcus Freeman (2021–now).
| Season | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||||||||||
| Record | 8-5 | 8-5 | 12-1 | 9-4 | 8-5 | 10-3 | 4-8 | 10-3 | 12-1 | 11-2 | 10-2 | 11-1 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | L bowl | Title game L | W bowl | W bowl | L bowl | — | W bowl | CFP loss | W bowl | CFP loss | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||||||||||
| OC | — | — | — | — | Mike Denbrock | Mike Sanford | Mike Sanford | Chip Long | Chip Long | Chip Long | Tommy Rees | Tommy Rees | |
| DC | — | — | — | — | Brian VanGorder | Brian VanGorder | Brian VanGorder | Mike Elko | Clark Lea | Clark Lea | Clark Lea | Marcus Freeman | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||||||||||
| Offense | 40 | 70 | 88 | 56 | 71 | 87 | 53 | 84 | 65 | 79 | 77 | 84 | |
| Defense | 78 | 55 | 49 | 74 | 11 | 42 | 64 | 74 | 86 | 97 | 53 | 92 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 51.2 | 50.3 | 44.5 | 46.7 | 46.0 | 42.9 | 45.8 | 40.8 | 40.9 | 46.6 | 40.1 | 48.9 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 59.0 | 44.0 | 38.9 | 53.5 | 42.5 | 40.9 | 46.2 | 36.7 | 50.0 | 47.5 | 39.2 | 35.0 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 17.9 | 18.5 | 10.3 | 24.4 | 28.6 | 15.2 | 40.0 | 25.6 | 43.4 | 41.9 | 29.0 | 29.3 | |
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Barely touches the portal — recruits and develops his own.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
56 NFL Draft picks: Kyle Rudolph (2011), Michael Floyd (2012), Harrison Smith (2012), Robert Blanton (2012), Darius Fleming (2012), Tyler Eifert (2013), Manti Te'o (2013), Jamoris Slaughter (2013) + 48 more
5 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): Kyle Hamilton (2020), Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (2020), Aaron Banks (2020), Liam Eichenberg (2020), Kyle Hamilton (2021)
6th-best Cincinnati tenure of 19 by the numbers.
Followed Mark Dantonio (2004–2006) · succeeded by Butch Jones (2010–2012).
| Season | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 1-0 | 10-3 | 11-3 | 12-0 | |
| Postseason | W bowl | W bowl | L bowl | — | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | — | 74 | 61 | 90 | |
| Defense | — | 40 | 60 | 5 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 48.2 | 48.7 | 57.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 55.3 | 46.7 | 52.9 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 36.7 | 30.4 | 23.3 | |
11 NFL Draft picks: Haruki Nakamura (2008), Angelo Craig (2008), Connor Barwin (2009), Kevin Huber (2009), DeAngelo Smith (2009), Brandon Underwood (2009), Mike Mickens (2009), Trevor Canfield (2009) + 3 more
8th-best Central Michigan tenure of 10 by the numbers.
Followed Mike DeBord (2000–2003) · succeeded by Butch Jones (2007–2009).
| Season | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||
| Record | 4-7 | 6-5 | 9-4 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||
| Offense | 61 | 54 | 81 | |
| Defense | 47 | 89 | 37 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||
| 1st-down pass% | 44.4 | 51.7 | 45.2 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 52.5 | 51.0 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 34.0 | 29.7 | |
5 NFL Draft picks: Eric Ghiaciuc (2005), Adam Kieft (2005), Joe Staley (2007), Dan Bazuin (2007), Drew Mormino (2007)
All-time wins
Wins at programs this site tracks, 1936–present — one consistent count for every coach, not each program’s own historically reported total.
1st all-time at Notre Dame
Was he good?
The data leans positive, where the data can separate from zero: every conclusive reading points the same way.
+12.7 pts at Cincinnati · #155 of 1290 · top quarterModel fit as of 2026-09-04.