The Josh Innes Show - Brian Kelly Fired..The Details

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Ross Dellenger has a really interesting breakdown of how LSU decided to fire Brian Kelly. It's wild how all this comes together. This dude never fully understood Louisiana nor did he seem to really care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I'm really fascinated by this Ross Delinger story inside Brian Kelly's messy firing at LSU, how it all unraveled so quickly in Baton Rouge. It is the most Louisiana thing ever, like the governor's involved with it. Louisiana is such a unique place. It is such a wild place. And if you tried to explain Louisiana to people in, you know, I don't know, Missouri, they just wouldn't get it because it's, it is a unique place where the, like, if you think politics are corrupt everywhere, go to Louisiana.

It's the most corrupt state you're ever going to freaking find, man. It's just it's that kind of place. And now you've got the governor who's in on this stuff. It is, look, the governor was so desperate for a live tiger to be at the LSU games that they went in and brought in some jank-ass tiger from Florida who was terrible. This big fat tiger named Omar who came in last season for the Florida game. So look, it is a weird place. It is a bizarre place.

It is a special place. There is no other place like Louisiana. And I'm going to break this story down because this story by Ross Dellinger is bonkers the way this whole thing kind of came to be. So let's play a couple of commercials and let's get into this story. When you support Movember, you're not just fundraising. You're showing up for the men you love. Your dad, your brother, your partner, your friends. It isn't just a men's issue.

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Conditions and exclusions apply. All right, here we go. Let's take a look. Let's see. Down on the bayou, they've got a saying, say too, say too. It's pronounced say two and it's Cajun French for that's all. And that is all for Brian Kelly. Sunday was a busy day in Baton Rouge meetings, phone calls, zooms, even a drafted resolution

for a multi-million dollar buyout for the school's 64-year-old head coach. Shall I put this in Louisiana terms? With the arrival of gumbo weather, things got quite spicy on the bayou. Let's get down to the bottom of this. I mean, it is crazy. Like, you think about Louisiana. It is one of the poorest states in America. It is one of the most or the least educated states in America.

It is one of the most unhealthy states in America. Yet one thing matters. And it's football. And most importantly, it's. LSU, and somehow they find money to get rid of these dudes, and you can argue it's gross. I mean, like, basically, it is gross to watch somebody get paid $50 million to be a failure. That part of it sucks. But I could also view it as you're getting paid $50 million because your agent is a winner,

so maybe we could look at it that way. Even political figures met over the course of several hours Sunday about the issue and are still haggling over the coach's $53 million buyout with his representatives. On Sunday evening, sometime just before 7th Central, and after a meeting at the Louisiana governor's mansion, decision makers pulled the plug on the Brian Kelly experiment. If you're wondering why such a decision was made inside the walls of a 25,000 square foot Greek revival home sitting three miles north of LSU's campus, well, we have got a story for you. So this whole thing took place in the governor's manager. It is wild. Look, they talk about how it just means more in the south of the SEC.

just means more. It just means more in the SEC, and then it just means more than more once you get into LSU and you get into that type of thing. It is nuts. That is what we have there. That is all we have. We have fat people. We have bad education, and we have LSU. That's shitty roads, shitty education, amazing food, and LSU. So let's start here. As most things go in South Louisiana politics is involved, the decision to fire Kelly extended to the state's top elected official, Landry, a brash first-term Republican, who you should know tweeted this on Saturday night after Texas A&M bludgeoned LSU in Tiger Stadium, and that tweet was about how they shouldn't up the ticket prices next year because of how bad LSU is.

More importantly, though, Landry has significant influence over the university's highest decision-making group, the 14-member LSU Board of Supervisors. Landry has appointed six of them, and he's due to a point four more next year when their terms expire. Making matters more complicated is the fact that LSU is searching for a permanent university president. The school announced five finalists earlier this week and a decision is expected soon, a move that rests mostly with Landry and the board itself. In the absence of a permanent president, the governor's grabbed authority over key decisions, especially those that cost the price of a small island. So think about how wild this is.

The governor of Louisiana is in the mix on how they're determined. determining whether or not they're going to fire a coach. Now, mind you, it is important to note that, like, that's going to be the case in a lot of places because the highest paid state employee in most states is going to be the football coach at a state university. So I get it. The governor has something to say about this. But it is pretty crazy. Quote, it's the most Louisiana thing ever that the governor is directly involved in a decision over a football coach, said one LSU influencer.

It is pretty crazy. At the heart of the issue is the money. Kelly is owed roughly 53 million, 90% of his remaining salary. It's reduced by his future work in coaching as well as media. No lump sum is required. It can be paid in monthly installments about $800,000 a month over several years. God, that rules. Look, no one wants to get fired because losing and getting fired fucking sucks.

It does. Like being a failure, losing in that way is the worst, right? But you're getting paid $800,000 a month to do. nothing. Now, if he gets a job, that saves LSU. And I am wondering, like, well, Brian Kelly get another job? Does he want another job? Would he get another high profile job? Because of how badly this thing ended? I don't know. Like, generally speaking, you're kind of allowed one giant, you know, mess and you can still make it. But Brian Kelly's coached it arguably two of the most famous programs in the history of college sports. He's coached at Notre

Dame, which up until, you know, not that long ago was the college football. program and LSU, which right now is one of the top five college programs and top five jobs in America. Like, where do you go from there if you're Brian Kelly? Like, who hires you if you're Brian Kelly? You think Penn States? Like, you can't lose the way Brian Kelly is lost. Like, it's hard for me to fathom that a guy that has collapsed at LSU to such a

manner and that the state turned on so much and the fan base turned on so much. I find it hard to believe that that guy is going to be able to pick up the phone and get the Penn State job or get the Arkansas job. Like, it won't happen because of that. Like, the way that ended makes it virtually impossible to get a high-profile gig like that. Now, the guys won a ton of football games. So, like, if you said, like, could UCLA hire Brian Kelly? Maybe.

But how do you sell Brian Kelly on a fan base? Now, granted, Kansas was able to sell the fan base on less miles, and that was a disaster. So I'm not telling you that these things can't happen or you can't fix it. But if you're Brian Kelly and your option is to sit on your ass and make a $800,000 while, you know, faithfully looking for another gig or taking a media job. But if your option is to sit around, collect a check, $800,000 a month, live the life, or your option is to go coach at Cincinnati or something. Like, what are you going to do?

Like, if you're just obsessed with coaching, I guess. But I don't know. Like, I'm fascinated to see what kind of interest Brian Kelly gets because of how poorly this ended. Like, it'd be one thing if, look, hey, you had a good run. you got fired, it just kind of fell apart, coaches get fired, it is what it is. Imagine a universe like this, though, where it's ended so terribly that you've got the state of Louisiana, the highest ranking official, the governor is trying to get you fired, like, that's a pretty big fucking deal.

Like, how do you recover from that? I don't know. Kelly has expressed to those at LSU and elsewhere that he wants to coach again and a move that could drastically reduce the buyout or potentially result in a negotiated lump payment. Given his record, he is likely to find a job if he really wants one. After all, he won at least nine games in his last eight full seasons as a coach, five at Notre Dame. This year at LSU, his three losses were to teams rank three, seven, and nine. Fine. And I'm not saying that Brian Kelly couldn't get a gig, but how big of a gig can Brian Kelly get? Like, again,

LSU took the swing on the big name coach and it totally flopped. Do you think someone else is going to say, hey, I'm going to take a big swing on this guy and see what happens? Like, could Purdue like a school like Purdue hire Brian Kelly maybe like a you know that type but is Florida Penn State fuck no Florida's not going to hire Brian Kelly Penn State's not going to hire Brian Kelly Kelly appeared at a team meeting Sunday telling players love y'all finish the season like even like the things he says feel disingenuous these not a yaw guy but at least he's staying in the character at least but love y'all finish the season earlier Sunday as LSU officials and donors as well as Louisiana political figures considered all these aspects, weighing the cost of keeping

him versus cutting bait, the decision was clear this wasn't salvageable. It was to the point that one leading LSU figure noted Sunday evening that Kelly couldn't explain why his players weren't playing harder. He'd lost the locker room, says another person. We are soft, said a third. That is very true. Either way, the Tigers now led by interim coach Frank Wilson are off this coming week before traveling to Alabama for a nationally televised game in which three lost LSU will

likely be more than a touchdown underdog. More than a touchdown. Shit, LSU is going to be like a two touchdown underdog, if not more. I have to look, but maybe there's an early line out for it. Boy, I'll tell you who didn't want to see this happen, though, is Bama. Because the worst case scenario for Bama, who is on the fast track to the playoff now after they started Rocky and they've bounced back. Boy, how bad is it that they lost to Florida State?

My Christ. Who's going to fire their coach, too? Probably. But if you're Bama, you didn't want this. This is not what you wanted. You wanted to be the team that put the nail in Brian Kelly's coffin. You don't want to be the team that's catching them the week after they fire the coach, and they're all jazzed up with the interim coach.

Now, they're going to win probably not, but look, I give them a better shot of winning now than when Brian Kelly was the coach and they were left for dead. Let's see here. Either way, the Tigers are now led by, let's see, more than a touchdown underdog, to its bitter rival and program that for decades has crapped in a shambalaya. How did we get here? This is the age of outrage. Well, that's going to take some time.

Time that we don't have, but the short of it is, the Tigers hired Kelly away from Notre Dame to win SEC championships, advanced to the playoff, and compete for all the marbles. And while 34 wins over three and a half seasons is not bad work, more was expected. They fired people on the bayou for much less. LSU canned its last two coaches, each of whom won national championships. Athletic Director Scott Woodward is politically connected in the state

and embraced by many on campus, made the decision to fire Ogeron, but Woodward's authority in making the decision is in question, some believe, after all, again, the governor got involved. Woodward has hired two coaches who have won national titles, Jay Johnson and baseball, Kim Mulkey and women's basketball, but we all know LSU football moves the needle more than anything in college athletics, blah, blah, blah. Will Woodward hire the next coach? It appears so.

That's such a wild thing, man. Dude, it's crazy, man. This whole thing is just a bizarre, like, it's wild that this went down the way. way it went down, man. And you look at all the coaches that are going to be available out there now. Like, everything about this is nuts. I'm glad because fuck that guy. Like, I just never felt, like, that was my biggest issue I had in rooting for LSU

is that I felt no passion for LSU anymore. Now, maybe that lack of passion just comes down to I don't like the current state of college athletics. And maybe that's nothing that can be fixed. Maybe firing Brian Kelly won't fix that. Maybe it's just the constant guys moving from place to place, the NIL world. Maybe I'm just not cut out for that, and I just don't like it. Maybe I don't like the fact that these dudes come in as hired guns.

They don't really have a passion for LSU. Then once things go south, they all seem to quit, and that's kind of what we've seen out of LSU now. Maybe that's it. But maybe a large part of why I'm not passionate anymore is because of Brian Kelly. Like, I'll tell you this, I never felt a lack of passion when it was coaching. Now, early on, when he wasn't winning, I wasn't happy about it, but I never hated LSU or I was never bored with LSU. Like, that's the important thing, is when O got the job, I was at a point where I was not bored with LSU or apathetic towards LSU. Now I'm in a world where I'm apathetic towards LSU.

That's the part I hate. I despise feeling apathy. I despise, like, last night or Saturday, I'm watching that LSU game, and I never really engaged in it. They were up 18 to 14 and a half. and I'm watching this and I never felt any passion for it. And as they continue to turn the ball over or give up punt return touchdowns, I never felt anything. I felt numb towards it.

And that's not how you want to feel when you're a fan of something. You want to be pissed when they lose and you want to feel great and elated when they win. And I've never felt that under Brian Kelly. I'll give him this. I'm not going to totally shit on everything the guy did. When they beat Bama with Jane Daniels in overtime, that felt really fucking good. when they beat Ole Miss in overtime at Tiger Stadium, was that last year, that felt amazing. There were moments that you felt like, whoa.

But then they'd be followed by, oh, you just got blasted three weeks in a row. And I think that's how that went last year. Like, I think against the, let's see, that would be the 2024 LSU Tigers. If you look at what LSU did last year, they beat Ole Miss. And when they beat Ole Miss, they were 5 and 1 and 2 in the SEC. Then they beat Arkansas. That's the game me and Jilly went to. We went to that game in Arkansas.

They got to 6 and 1. That was followed by 15 point loss to A&M, 30 point loss to Alabama, 11 point loss to Florida. So for all the highs and the wonderful things that happened for LSU, and remember, they were 6 and 1. They were 6 and 1 and 3 in the SEC. And then they lost by double digits three games in a row. And that's the same thing that's happened this year. They started out hot, got into the top three.

Here's what they've done. They lost Ole Miss by 5 and it wasn't that close. They lost by 7 to Vanderbilt. It didn't feel like it was that close. And they just got bludgeoned by 24 by A&M and it wasn't that close. And it's not going to stop. But that's been how it's been with Brian Kelly. You look at 2023.

Like, 20203 was probably the best of the Brian Kelly years and that was the Jane Daniels year. And if Jane Daniels doesn't get hurt, maybe they beat Alabama. And who knows how the world changes for them? You know, if they beat Alabama, they're in the playoff. They're in the everything. So again, 2023 was like. like the apex of Brian Kelly. But then you look at how they ended the year against it.

And then they went to the conference championship came against Georgia and got their asses whipped in his first year. But that was his first year. Also, LSU has fired the offensive coordinator this morning too. So, look, none of us at LSU had passion for Brian Kelly and we didn't believe that he had a chance to turn things around. And he got whacked. That's how it goes.