Key Points:
- LSU fired Brian Kelly after a 5-3 start.
- Kelly reportedly rejected LSU’s $25 and $30 million settlement offers, demanding his full $53 million buyout.
- Interim coach Frank Wilson plans to rotate quarterbacks Garrett Nussmeier and Michael Van Buren Jr. versus Arkansas.
The LSU Tigers are one of 13 FBS programs to be in the market for a head coach as the end of the regular season rapidly approaches.
With plenty of pressure on him because his predecessor won a title as recently as 2019, Brian Kelly left his cushy job at Notre Dame for a championship-or-bust program at LSU. Despite back-to-back 10-win seasons in the first two years of his tenure in Baton Rouge, Kelly was never able to get LSU over the hump from good to title contention.
Kelly was fired on Oct. 26 following the team’s ugly 45-29 loss to Texas A&M, which effectively knocked them out of College Football Playoff contention and dropped them to 5-3 on the season.
The decision to fire Kelly is one that was widely supported by fans, as many had been calling for the firing since last season. With that being said, it certainly wasn’t a cheap decision for the Tigers.
Brian Kelly reportedly wants all $53 million of his LSU buyout
Kelly’s $53 million buyout was the second-largest in college football history, trailing only the $77 million Texas A&M had to pay to get rid of Jimbo Fisher. While LSU fired Kelly, knowing the chances that they’d have to pay him all of the money owed were high, the program still attempted to see if Kelly would settle for less.
An offer that, according to Wilson Alexander of the New Orleans Advocate, Kelly was not on board with.
“Former LSU football coach Brian Kelly rejected two financial settlement offers, and he has requested that the school pay his full buyout of nearly $54 million, according to documents obtained by The Advocate, as negotiations continue two weeks after he was fired,” Alexander wrote.
Alexander revealed that the two offers sent to Kelly by LSU for a possible settlement were for $25 and $30 million.
With Kelly no longer at the helm, former assistant to the head coach and running backs coach Frank Wilson is appointed as the interim head coach. While the Tigers have a talented roster, something hasn’t clicked for them this season as they ended up losing Wilson’s first game at the helm this past weekend. The Tigers lost on Saturday, 20-9 to the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide, with Wilson actually opting to bench senior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.
Wilson turned to Mississippi State transfer Michael Van Buren Jr. to finish out the game, and told the media on Monday that he plans to play both of them this weekend against Arkansas.
“They both brought something to the table that helped this team go up and down the field,” Wilson said via Nola.com. “They both have things that they need to continue to work on as well. I don’t think it’s a clear separation where one is beyond the other. We’ll need both of them, and I know we’ll use both of them in this game.”
Saturday’s game is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. ET and will air on the SEC Network.