Psalms 37:13“But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming”.

God wasn’t the only one laughing when Brian Kelly was finally fired from LSU. I most definitely was. But before I get into that, we need some background information. LSU took on Texas A&M at home and got absolutely embarrassed. In the 3rd quarter, the Tigers allowed a punt return that would prove to be game ending. Kelly would obviously be a professional like he’s known to be, and tell his special teams coach that “That will cost you your f-ing job”. If only he knew. A&M kept piling it on, and by the end of the game, the LSU student section, once filled with LSU faithful, had been replaced with a swarm of Aggies. Earlier this season, I said that LSU earned the title of “Death Valley” after beating Clemson, but I’ve changed my mind. Neither of them deserve it, give it to UNLV I guess. The next day, it was reported that Kelly was meeting with LSU officials, the AD, and the Governor of Louisiana for some reason. After, Kelly was recorded leaving the meeting by someone who looked like they were hiding in a bush?? Kelly’s own players didn’t like the guy! Malik Nabers posted a video of a guy kicking rocks, obviously a shot at Kelly, telling him to “kick rocks”. Another former player, RB Trey Holly posted “Karma Real” on his Instagram story in response to the firing. 

But that’s just the football element. Why was I so happy to see Kelly gone, and why would I use a Bible verse about wickedness to describe him? Lets look at the skeletons of Brian Kelly’s closet. Just a warning, this gets dark, so be prepared. Let’s start with the oldest story from when he was head coach at Central Michigan. A few players went out and got in a bar fight, resulting in a man’s death. In the face of this tragedy, Brian Kelly responded with this, and I quote “A number of them were African-Americans that had been in that culture of violence, and they’re taught to look away. You don’t want anything to do with it. Get out of there. You don’t say anything to anybody. That is a culture that they are immersed in”. What?? You could’ve just said it was terrible. Or anything but bringing up the race of the players, which is completely irrelevant in this situation? But that isn’t the end of Kelly’s CMU scandals. He invited 2 graduate assistants to a Christmas party at his house. Sounds nice right! Nope, he made them shovel snow and park cars. Those two GA’s said later that it changed the way they treat people now. Who were those assistants? Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LeFleur and San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Selah. Two coaches who have since been far more successful than Kelly. Lets jump forward in time to his recent stint with LSU. Greg Brooks Jr was an star LSU linebacker in 2023. The LSU medical staff would misdiagnose him with vertigo. As you probably guessed, it wasn’t vertigo. It was a brain tumor. Brooks suffered through strokes and brain cancer after his emergency surgery. Him and his family have sued LSU’s coaching and medical staff for mishandling his condition and failing to support him. How did Brian Kelly respond to this? He claimed that he supported Brooks, but also called the families allegations “factually incorrect”. Brooks’s father would go on Good Morning America and say this regarding Kelly: “My son almost lost his life coach, where were you?”. The family also was also not informed of the conditions until the day before emergency surgery. These claims were backed up by another former LSU player. Safety Matthew Langlois posted his account of Kelly’s response to player injuries on Twitter after the news of his firing. His first tweet stated that he was forced to medically retire before getting a 2nd option and that Kelly didn’t speak to him after his injury, despite him being in contact frequently when he was playing well. He would go on to say that “Unless you were producing positively for him on the field, he could care less about you.”. I wouldn’t be shocked to hear more stories like these in the coming days. Who knows what else could’ve happened to cause Nabers and Holly to be so thrilled to see Kelly fired even after they left LSU? I think we can make a safe assumption. The father of late WR Kyren Lacy, who was close friends with Nabers would say that Kelly did not reach out to him after the death of his son, which seems to be a consistency surrounding Kelly. 

And now, if this wasn’t already bad enough, the really dark ones. Lets go back to 2010, when Kelly was with Notre Dame in his first full season. Declan Sullivan was a 20 year old student in South Bend in 2010 when Brian Kelly was coaching. He had a family, friends, and dreams of his own. Then Kelly decided that he NEEDED practice footage in weather that received wind advisories from the NWS.. Sullivan’s last tweets are terrifying. 3:22 PM: “Gusts of wind up to 60 mph. Well today will be fun at work. I guess I’ve lived long enough.” 4:06 PM: Holy f–k. Holy f–k. This is terrifying”. Kelly said the weather on the day of the practice was “beautiful”. Again, there were wind advisories in place. This never should’ve happened. Declan Sullivan should still be alive. We’re not even done yet. In 2010, the same year as Declan Sullivan’s tragic death, Prince Shembo, former Notre Dame linebacker, was accused of sexual assault by a freshman named Lizzy Seeberg. Instead of working with police on the investigation like any coach who cared about the actions of his players would, Kelly and Notre Dame had campus police delay interviewing Shembo and instead tried to handle matters internally. Shembo wasn’t charged, potentially attributable to this attempt to protect Kelly and the college’s image. On September 2nd, 2010, Seeberg received a message from a friend of Shembo saying “Don’t do anything you would regret. Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea.”. Lizzy Seeberg committed suicide on September 10th,2010. Just like Dylan, Lizzy Seeberg had dreams, family, and friends, all cut short due to the cancerous culture that metastasized under Kelly. 

There are probably countless stories of Kelly being an absolutely disgusting person to others, but I’ve gone on long enough. I’ll conclude with this: The next program to give this man a chance deserves whatever comes to them. And when that comes, I’ll be the first one to celebrate. RIP Declan Sullivan. RIP Lizzy Seeberg. You both deserved so much better.