re: Brian Kelly reminds me a lot of Mark Richt

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One year comparison after Kelly was handed 39 scholarship players when he got here and still pulled off the West and 10 wins? Richt would never pull that off. This season should have been a warning to all of you. The guy is fricking legit.

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No reason richt couldn’t have done that.

Did lsu bring in 46 players for 2022 to get to 85?

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That A&M game was a head scratcher. To lose is one thing but they had zero answers for anything A&M was doing.

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Yeah, it was bad. Arkansas game was another bad one

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The maddening thing about Richt was his teams ability to play up or down to the level of competition which would invariably cost us a game or two every year. At other times his teams could come out flat and completely bomb a game they never should have lost. It was maddening to be a fan. You just never knew which team was gonna show up: the manic or the depressive.

That's what I saw last year with BK and the LSU Tigers. They absolutely bombed the Tennessee game, survived the Arkansas game, BEAT Bama only to get steamrolled by Texas A&M. It was a prototypical Mark Richt season.

I realize this opinion is solely based on Kelly's first year in the SEC and that could very well explain a lot, if not all of this. I'm looking forward to watching LSU play this year and determining whether this is a one off or something that will become a defining characteristic. I guess time will tell.

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I think you have to factor last year being Kelly's first year into the mix as you note.

Mark Richt and Brian Kelly have significant differences. First, Richt's only been the head coach at two places--Georgia and Miami. Brian Kelly was the head coach at 3 different schools at 2 different levels before he got the Notre Dame job. The guys won at different places at different levels, unlike Richt.

That's not take anything away from Richt--he has a pretty amazing record. But Kelly's got a lot more history that indicates that he's likelier to get it done. Not sure he will, but he's won pretty much everywhere he's went.

Realistically speaking, this entire thread comes down to "do you think Kelly wins a NC".

If the answer is no, he'll be viewed similarly or potentially below a Mark Richt.

If the answer is yes, he'll be viewed above Mark Richt.

If Richt had won the national championship once, He'd probably be in the top 5 of SEC coaches since the turn of the century and top 10 all time.

He won a ton at UGA. Just not titles. That's been the same critique for Kelly since he left division 2 footall.

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I think you have to factor last year being Kelly's first year into the mix as you note.

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this was kelly's first year at LSU. It's his 33rd year as a football head coach, 12 of which were at a blue blood. Considering Richt's first head coaching experience ever was being thrown into the SEC at UGA makes his accomplishments all the more impressive IMO. You hit on these things in your post, but then you conclude by going int he complete opposite direction. You say that as if it's a negative towards richt, and that this proves kelly is "more likely" to get things done. I have the complete opposite take away.

Richt had only coached in the SEC his whole career (I'm ignoring his brief swan song at miami when his health was already declining). In his 2nd year as a head coach he finished the season ranked as high as Kelly ever has in his 1A career. In his 7th year as a head coach Richt finished ranked higher than Kelly ever has. Richt has come closer to winning a natty thatn kelly has.

Take into account that only once (last year in 2022) has kelly had to run through an SEC season gauntlet, and it resulted in 4 losses.

I can finally agree with something you have reported:

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Louisiana has a lot of good kids, no doubt, and i have always said Kelly is a very good coach. It will be interesting to see how he does.

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this was kelly's first year at LSU. It's his 33rd year as a football head coach, 12 of which were at a blue blood. Considering Richt's first head coaching experience ever was being thrown into the SEC at UGA makes his accomplishments all the more impressive IMO. You hit on these things in your post, but then you conclude by going int he complete opposite direction. You say that as if it's a negative towards richt, and that this proves kelly is "more likely" to get things done. I have the complete opposite take away.

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That argument comes down to whether you think Notre Dame is still a legitimate contender.

The body of work says no.

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That argument comes down to whether you think Notre Dame is still a legitimate contender

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which argument? Notre dame is a blue blood and that's not debatable. "Contedner" is a differnet topic entirely.

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The body of work says no

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Kelly's body of work says that notre dame isn't a contender? What does that say about his resume then?

Btw, I've never shite talked or downplayed kelly at all ITT. Thus far I've only done 2 things; state both coaches are good, and point out that I believe richt was better.

I do think kelly is a perfectly fine coach but I dont' think he's great and I don't think he'll ever win a natty.

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You do realize that Kirby lost to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech in year 1 and inherited a much better situation that Kelly did.

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Kirby was also a first time head coach, not a guy with decades of experience.

And while people love to talk about the good situation UGA had, it wasn't as great as people think they remember.

They had no experienced talent at QB... with Grayson Lambert returning and a true freshman in Jacob Eason clearly being more talented. They went through the transition between the two during the year.

They had big holes on the OL, with 3 very sub-par starters (Catalina, Kublanow and Pyke). They recruited very well even in the transition year, but those OL weren't ready until the following year. Chubb was coming off a devastating knee injury and Michel broke his arm leading into the season in an ATV accident. UGA was still running an offense with a FB as they didn't have the WR and TE talent they do now. They only listed 2 DL on their depth chart because they didn't have the DL depth to list 3 deep with 3 DL positions. Their starting PUnter was actually their 3rd string QB (who had to be talked into playing the season because UGA had no QB depth).

THe big indicator for me from that team were the number of guys who started that year and returned... and ended up behind newer guys. That was the indicator that the talent level had taken a huge step upward.

Pyke didn't start at RT in 2017... true freshman Andrew Thomas took his job. Kublanow was benched for RS Freshman platoon of Kindley and Cleveland. Ridley took Chigbu's job at WR. Clark for Thompson on the DL. Nauta over Blazevich at TE. All of these returning experienced starters were passed by talented FR/SO/RSFR from Smart's first two recruiting classes. Heck, even with Chubb and Michel, DeAndre Swift was so good he stole snaps.

It was clear in year 2 how much better the talent was. And that's continued to be true Smart's entire stay at UGA so far. UGA made a title run in 2017 with experienced less talented players and extremely talented youngsters. By 2021 and 2022, UGA had high level talent BOTH for their experienced guys and their newer guys.

LSU had the 8th most talented team last season. The reality is while a good number of guys left with Orgeron and Orgeron left their transition class in shambles, the players he had recruited in prior seasons were in fact incredibly talented. Kelly used the transfer portal to supplement what Orgeron left, but LSU's issue last year really wasn't a lack of talent, it was simply a lack of numbers. The talent that was left was likely better than what smart had. Smart just had 50-60 guys of lower talent rather than 35-40 guys with higher talent (and a transfer portal to fill in).