LSU head coach Brian Kelly did himself no favors when he just lately backtracked earlier feedback about his former workforce, Notre Dame.
In an interview with CBS Sports, Kelly, who simply completed his third season at LSU, tried some revisionist historical past when discussing why he left South Bend for Baton Rouge following the 2021 season.
“I wasn’t leaving Notre Dame as a result of I could not win a championship,” Kelly mentioned. “I selected a special path as a result of I wished a special problem.”
His most up-to-date feedback are a direct distinction to these he made within the spring of 2022, months after leaving Notre Dame for LSU.
“I need to be in an surroundings the place I’ve the assets to win a nationwide championship,” Kelly told The Associated Press in April 2022.
As a lot as Kelly may need to spin these preliminary feedback almost three years later, nobody can purchase it
Primarily based on his personal phrases, he believed Notre Dame did not do sufficient to present him the instruments essential to win a nationwide championship.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, who was Kelly’s defensive coordinator in 2021, has uncovered how fraudulent that concept is by main the Irish to their first nationwide championship sport look since 2012, Kelly’s third season main this system. Notre Dame misplaced to Alabama, 42-14, within the largest blowout in BCS championship historical past that season.
Kelly went 0-2 within the Faculty Soccer Playoff, shedding to Clemson, 30-3, in 2018, and Alabama, 31-14, in 2020.
He is but to achieve the CFP at LSU, the place he has a 29-11 document in three seasons. In the meantime, Notre Dame is 33-8 throughout that span, together with three CFP wins this season.
CFP No. 5 Notre Dame (14-1) performs No. 6 Ohio State (13-2) within the nationwide championship sport on Monday in Atlanta.
Freeman’s success has put Kelly’s tenure beneath a special gentle. As a lot because the LSU head coach tries to alter the narrative, he cannot wiggle previous his earlier feedback.
He left Notre Dame to have a greater shot at successful a title, but the Irish are a win away from a nationwide championship. Kelly misplayed his hand, and no try and rewrite historical past will change that.