LSU is considering firing fourth-year coach Brian Kelly, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, after a day of internal meetings and escalating tension inside the football facility.
High-ranking LSU officials, including athletics director Scott Woodward, have held ongoing discussions throughout Sunday about the program’s direction, multiple people told CBS Sports. While no decision has been finalized and the process was still ongoing as of Sunday night, it is currently trending toward LSU and Kelly parting ways, according to sources.
Louisiana governor Jeff Landry is involved in the deliberations, sources told CBS Sports. Landry called out the football program after Saturday night’s 49-25 loss to Texas A&M, tweeting that LSU needed to “rethink their actions to raise ticket prices for next year after tonight’s showing!”
Kelly, 64, arrived at the facility around 8:30-8:45 a.m. local time intent on evaluating his staff and, according to sources, exploring significant potential changes to the coaching staff. By early afternoon, though, after a meeting with Woodward that did not go well, according to sources, the conversation around Kelly’s future began to change. Multiple staff members told CBS Sports that Kelly left the facility shortly thereafter and that the belief among much of his coaching staff is that his tenure at LSU may be nearing its end.
Entering the day, LSU’s focus was on whether Kelly could retool his staff and salvage a disappointing 5-3 season. It was a continuation of a discussion that began Saturday night after the Texas A&M loss when Kelly had conversations with multiple high-ranking LSU officials about the state of the program. However by Sunday evening, the tone around the program had shifted — and the question was whether Kelly would remain the one making those decisions.
If LSU ultimately moves forward with a change, Kelly’s buyout would rank among the largest in college football history. His contract calls for a payout of approximately $53.8 million, second only to Jimbo Fisher’s $76.8 million buyout at Texas A&M. (Woodward hired Fisher at Texas A&M and was thus responsible for that buyout sum, too.) The payments would be monthly through 2031, per the terms of his contract.
The potential move would mark a stunning fall for one of college football’s highest-profile hires. Woodward, who brought Kelly to Baton Rouge in 2021 in a blockbuster move from Notre Dame, envisioned him as the stabilizing force to bring the Tigers back to national championship contention. Instead, LSU has hovered around SEC relevance without breaking through.
Kelly is 34-14 in his four seasons at LSU but has never guided the Tigers to a College Football Playoff appearance. The Tigers peaked at No. 3 in the AP Top 25 earlier this season before unraveling amid mounting pressure, capped by a Week 9 loss to No. 3 Texas A&M that saw “Fire Kelly” chants echo through Tiger Stadium.
Several LSU staffers on Sunday, reached anonymously, expressed doubt that Kelly would survive the week, while others cautioned that no decision had yet been communicated.
For now, LSU’s leadership appears to be weighing one of the most expensive decisions in college football — and one that could reshape the sport’s ongoing “buyout bubble,” where losing coaches walk away with record-setting checks. Complicating the situation is LSU currently has an interim president, Matt Lee, who took over in July after William Tate IV left to become the president of Rutgers. Lee is also LSU’s vice president for agriculture.
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