The Josh Innes Show - The Brian Kelly Firing Happened Over A Half Of Football

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

My buddy Matt Moscona, who dominates Louisiana sports media, broke down how quickly the decision to fire Brian Kelly came together. I've got some audio from Matt. It's crazy to think this decision was made in such a hasty manner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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all right everybody welcome in all up in this podcast how are you i know i'm a little late today i apologize it is what it is i don't know what to tell you i didn't want to be late but i'm busy i got things i got to do but i try to get these pods in for you because i love you because we make a couple of bucks do me a favor continue to tell your friends about the pod continue to uh spread the gospel it would be greatly appreciated i would be forever indebted to you if you would continue to do so uh you're wonderful so here's what we're going to do. I know I've talked a lot about Brian Kelly, but my buddy Matt in Baton Roos, who's really tapped in, he's like the most tapped in dude you're going to find.

He is LSU media. He is Louisiana media. He's the dude. He had a segment yesterday on his show where he talked about how quickly this whole thing came together. And it's really wild how quickly like the idea to fire Brian Kelly came together. It essentially came together over the course of the A&M game. It's pretty crazy. I'll play that audio for you after these were. 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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I love him very much. I've known him for 20 years. I trust him very much. When he gets information, he gets good info. So let's do this. This is Matt explaining how quickly this Brian Kelly thing went down and debating about whether or not it was super reactionary. That can be debated, obviously.

but the whole breakdown of how this thing played out is really nuts. Here's Matt. The fact that this happened so quickly is stunning. This feels so reactionary. The events that set forth on Sunday were very dramatic and evolving throughout the day because of the many different people that got involved. But ultimately, as I understand it, what happened is as the Texas A&M game was unfolding, conversation started to be had to take temperature.

All right. Now, before we continue, think about the absurdity of this. LSU's playing. They're up 18 to 14 at halftime. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they weren't questioning whether or not to fire the coach in the first half. They're up 18 to 14. That means that as this game is going on in the second half where LSU is getting bludgeoned by Texas A&M, there are people getting together big money people, big money boosters, people with cash. and these people are like, hey, let's talk about what we have to do to get this guy out of here. Think about that.

That's over the course of like an hour and a half they make this decision. Anyway, I'll continue the audio. Among boosters who might be willing to contribute to a buyout, Brian Kelly didn't have any allies. And that maybe would end up being his undoing at LSU, is that he didn't work hard enough to gain the favor of the people. who were making these types of, who had influence in these types of decisions. And before I continue, that is a real thing, particularly down in Louisiana and at colleges

where they're all kind of controlled by these big money boosters. But I know I keep bringing up the Philadelphia thing. Once you run out of allies in important spots, you're cooked. And that's what happened to me at WIP. Like, I ran out of people who were allies. The big boss wasn't an ally. The person like running CBS at the time wasn't an ally. the PD Spike wasn't an ally.

I had sales, I had a couple of friends in sales, but overall, big picture, sales wasn't an ally. So that's what happens in these big situations. It's about currying favor. Now, that doesn't guarantee you're going to keep your job. You might be the most likable dude on the planet and still get fired. You might have the most friends ever and still get fired. That's clearly a possibility. But, like, when you run out of people that are on your side, it makes it a lot easier for people to get rid of you.

But again, they're still in a position where they have to find potentially $100 million to replace a coach, hire new coaches. It's nuts. But anyway, let's continue. And so when you get to a very ugly situation, like what happened on Saturday night, the conversation wasn't, should we make staff changes and see if that might help for the remainder of the season. It was, no, it's you. And he had no allies.

The feeling simply was that Brian Kelly lost. the team. And when you lose the team, you can't get it back. And think about this. I know I keep hammering this, but it's fascinating. Think about the fact that LSU goes into that game again. The guy seemingly has some allies. He has some people that are on his side because this is the same Matt who when I texted him even after this game, but particularly after Vanderbilt, after they lost to Vanderbilt, I texted Matt. And I go, what's the situation? It's this guy going to get whacked? What is the deal? What is going to happen with Brian Kelly? Is there a possibility he gets fired? And the idea was no, because there is, I believe his line was, there is no desire at this

point for them to move on. There's no, like, there's no desire to move on from Kelly and have to pay this big buyout. That was the sentiment 10 days ago, 12 days ago, whatever it was, 11 days ago, after they lost to Vanderbilt and I sent him a message and I asked him, Matt, what is the interest level in them whacking Brian Kelly. And he said, there isn't one right now. So that means that over the course of the last four or five days, not even that, like go back to Saturday. It's Saturday night, it's Death Valley. People are hyped. The energy is high. It's immaculate, although you can always feel it. Like, I don't know, I'm an LSU fan. I've been that way for the last 30 years of my life, okay? I've never, and I haven't been in the stadium in a while. I don't even remember the last

home game I went to. You know what it was? It was when they played UCLA a couple years ago at home. I guess last season and it was balls hot and it was terrible. And it wasn't really a good vibe. But even from afar, you felt that the vibe wasn't there. Like if you're doing a vibe check on LSU, even Death Valley, Saturday night, Tiger Stadium, sold out crowd, even that didn't feel like the vibes were there. It didn't feel like those elite level vibes. It felt like people were just waiting to get pissed off about something. That's how I felt watching the game. I didn't go into that game

excited, hoping that LSU would win. I went into that game waiting for something bad to happen so I could be pissed off or even worse, be apathetic. So that's how the vibes were going in. But then they're up at halftime. They're winning for the second consecutive year against A&M. They're up at halftime. They're winning.

That means that sometime in between halftime and the end of that game, they went from, oh, things are kind of okay. to we want to fire the coach. And imagine being the coach. You have no idea this is going on. And maybe you think it.

Like you could look at Kelly on the sideline. He looked like a guy that had no answers. He's yelling at his coaches. There's a video that was posted of him yelling at the offensive coordinator on the headset. Like there were a lot of things about that that were like ugly. And it got ugly. And the fans started chanting, you know, fire Kelly and all that shit. Like it was a, it was ugly.

And it felt like something needed to change. The people in Louisiana had already made their. decision. They're sick of Kelly. They want him out. But they don't make the decision. The fans don't make that decision. The people that make that decision really are the boosters. You can say it's the athletic director, whatever. The people that have the money, the people that can pay these buyouts, the rich-ass people will make those decisions. And that means that they were in suites on Saturday hanging out, watching LSU beating A&M. And then over the course of the last 30 minutes of game time, hour and a half in real time, whatever it is, they went from, I mean, we're fine with it. We'll see what

happens to, it's over, this guy's got to go. And within less than 24 hours, they fired the coach. And they're working on ways to find that kind of cash to pay him off, which is like $53 million. And then they have to pay other coaches. There's a whole bunch. It's just wild how that kind of shit works out, man. Like, I'm not trying to keep hammering the story. I know if you're listening, you're like, I don't give a shit. Maybe you don't care about the Brian Kelly story. Maybe you do. Maybe you find it as interesting as I find it. But I find it super fascinating the way these kind of deals go down. The way they go from, all right, well, we're not really interested in moving on. We'll see what happens. And oh, he lost Vanderbilt, who's in the top 10, and he lost Ole Miss,

who's in the top 10. And each of those were one score games and blah, blah, blah. Somehow, from the time LSU was leading 18, 14, or whatever it was at halftime, 1815, 1814, whatever the score was at halftime, to the end of the game, they had made a decision then and there. And I don't know that the athletic director did. the people with the money, the people that control at all made the decision to get rid of Brian Kelly. I find that so intriguing. I just find it so fascinating to watch how, like, this guy's coaching. He has no idea what's going on.

Maybe in the back of his mind, he knows that things aren't going good and he knows this is a disaster. But he has no idea as he's standing down there on the field that he's dead man walking. Now, some guys do, like Billy Napier, when he got fired at Florida a couple weeks ago, like he knew pretty much no matter what happened in that game against Mississippi State his time was done like he was going to get fired I think they were going into a bye week he knew he was going to be fired like so he's coaching a game knowing that pretty much no matter what he does he's out and that's got to be weird having that in the back of your mind that no matter what you're doing it's over and they ended up getting a big interception at the end of the game and they beat Mississippi State that game didn't matter it did not matter the outcome was it was determined yet then there's other guys like Hugh Freeze And I think the story about Hugh Freeze was that they were playing Arkansas last week. And that Hugh Freeze's job would be saved if they beat Arkansas. And if they lost, he'd get fired. And I'm like, you make those decisions like that?

That's a rash decision. Like, who cares if you beat Arkansas? Arkansas sucks. You either know the guy's a good coach or you don't. What is winning or losing against Arkansas going to do? But that's college coaching. That's 2025. I would say that's the SEC.

But shit, look in every other league too. Look at Penn State. it's nuts. But Brian Kelly probably had no inclination he was getting fired because the guy's got a $53 million buyout and he seemingly had the confidence of people. And then they melted down in epic fashion and the stadium's empty in the fourth quarter

and the people are booing and they're restless and they're saying fire Brian Kelly in the stands and like his players don't seem interested. They're not playing hard. He lost them. It's just amazing how quickly it can turn. Because like, what a fellow who wins that? Or what if LSU beats Vanderbilt? So let's say LSU had beaten Vanderbilt and there are a two-lost team that's still in the hunt for the college football playoff.

I've got to fire him, but does LSU that much better of a team if a ball bounces the other way and they beat Ole Miss? No, Ole Miss is a good team. But let's say the ball bounces your way and instead of losing a seven-point game to Ole Miss, you win that. Or a seven-point game to Vanderbilt. What if you win that? So I agree that it's pretty, it's a rash decision. I don't disagree with that. but it's something that's been stewing for a long time

and then when you're sitting in a sold-out stadium and by the fourth quarter the stadium is completely empty and A&M has overtaken your stadium and they're talking shit on you and the week before that Vanderbilt at their stadiums playing Colin Baton Rouge and posting signs by the visiting locker room talking shit to you and before that Ole Miss your little brother

your rival quote unquote that you've owned pretty much since the beginning of time they whip your fucking ass with Lane Kiffin talking his shit something had to change And then it was the Ole Miss thing. Obviously, the Ole Miss thing put it over the top. But it's just fascinating to me that you'd sit there and just like the moving and shaking and the wheeling and dealing, the deciding that this guy's got to go over the course of a half of football.

The decision to keep a guy, the decision to leave, the decision to pay a guy $53 million to go away, all determined over the course of a half of football. Not a four-year sample size. They said, you know what? We're done. That's nuts to me. And look, I'm on their side. I'm sick of Brian Kelly. I hate the guy.

He's unlikable. He never fit. I never felt like he loved LSU. That was another big thing. And I've seen a lot of people talking about that. When they do, I agree with them. Like, I don't believe you have to be from somewhere to be the coach to be successful. Obviously, you don't.

But you have to at least give off the vibe that you love the university and don't just love what the university can do for you. And I think the vibe about Brian Kelly is that Brian Kelly loved what LSU. could do for Brian Kelly, he could get him that championship he's always wanted right off into the sunset as a champion, something he never got done at Notre Dame. But I never felt that Brian Kelly truly embraced LSU or wanted to be at LSU. He just liked making $11 million, liked being an SEC coach, liked the fact that he was in the running because he could get all this talent. But I never felt like he loved it.

And again, most coaches aren't going to love it the way a fan does because we're fans, we're wackos, that's what we do. But you want to at least believe the guy has some sort of interest. in you, and that, like, it hurts him to lose. Everything about Brian Kelly felt disingenuous and phony, and it starts with the my family thing. It always just felt like, not a forced marriage, but something that he felt like he was obligated to do because he couldn't turn it down, but not something he wanted to do because

it's what he wanted to do. It was like, it's there, and it's a lot of money, and it's the SEC, and I'm going to take it, but it never felt like he needed that or was passionate about it, and that killed him. and then you get your ass knocked around by Texas A&M. It's wild to think, and I know we talked about this yesterday. A year ago, they played Texas A&M and were like top 10 in the country coming off a win against Arkansas. And they had the lead at halftime. And A&M makes the change at quarterback, brings in Marcel Reed.

LSU loses. And that completely changes the course of history. Like, I'm fascinated by those. You know this. When you listen to me, you know I'm fascinated by like red letter dates and what if type of things. What if they never make the change at quarterback? and LSU beats A&M, and LSU is a top five team in the country with four games to go last year. What happens?

I find that kind of stuff to be interesting. But then fast forward, you know, 365 or so days, and LSU's lost three of their last four, and LSU's firing the coach and having to find $53 million. I just find these things fascinating. And then it happens over the course of a half amongst a bunch of rich dudes in a press box. It's nuts. Anyway, more to come.