Brian Kelly is learning what it feels like to be on the other side of college football’s opening weekend.
After spending decades in the sport and leading LSU from 2022 to 2025, the 64-year-old found himself watching from home this past weekend as the Tigers opened against Clemson. On Sirius XM, Kelly admitted the experience hit differently than he expected.
“I’ll be honest, I had a hard time watching it,” Kelly said on Thursday (h/t On3). “But I don’t think it was just LSU, it was just the first weekend truly of college football, and it was hard.
You’ve been doing it for 35 years, and not to be part of that process, my wife wanted to kill me. She was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’
What was wrong was I wasn’t on the sidelines, and I had to deal with it and get through it.”
That reaction makes sense when you look at Kelly’s run in the game. He’s been coaching college football since the 1980s, when he started at DII Assumption as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 1983. By the time he became nationally known at Notre Dame from 2010 to 2021, he had already built a career that stretched across decades.
Even now, Kelly isn’t exactly disconnected from the sport. He’s working as a college football analyst for CBS Sports, and he’s set to call Mountain West Conference games with the CBS crew in 2026.
Still, being in the booth is a different life than standing on the sideline, and Kelly sounds like a coach who is still adjusting to that reality. After a year away, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he found his way back into coaching again. His résumé alone would make him a tempting name for programs looking for experience: a 200-76 record in 22 seasons as a head coach, good for a .725 winning percentage.
For the moment, though, Kelly is left to watch from afar. And when he did tune in to LSU, he liked what he saw.
“There’s no mistaking it, LSU looked great,” Kelly said.
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Brian Kelly is only a year removed from coaching LSU, but the rhythm of fall Saturdays has already changed for him. Now working as a college football analyst for CBS Sports after a long run on the sideline, Kelly said on Sirius XM that it has been tough to sit back and watch games this season, especially when the action involves the Tigers he used to run. For a coach who has been in the profession since the 1980s, stepping into a media role has not made the emotional pull of the sport any easier.
Kelly also made clear that LSU still has his attention, and not just because of the past. He said he admired what the program has done under Lane Kiffin, a remark that adds another layer to a season already full of coaching chatter around the sport. With a 200-76 career record and a track record that keeps him in future job discussions, Kellys comments only underscore how closely the coaching carousel and the SEC remain linked, even when he is no longer part of it. [Read more 🡒]
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