Brian Kelly: LSU has a 'national championship defense' following Week 1.
LSU · Charlotte“But I don’t think it was just LSU, it was just the first weekend truly of college football, and it was hard. You’ve been doing it for 35 years, and not to be part of that process, my wife wanted to kill me.
She was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ What was wrong was I wasn’t on the sidelines, and I had to deal with it and get through it.”
Of course, Kelly has managed to stay around the sport in his new role as a college football analyst for CBS Sports. Brian Kelly, although not with LSU anymore, has big expectations for his former school.
The ex-head coach, who’s working as an CBS Sports analyst this year and doing some radio in the meantime, sat down and watched LSU take on Clemson over the weekend. While it was tough to look away, something Kelly’s wife gave him grief over, the long time head coach came away very impressed with Lane Kiffin’s squad.
KEY POINTS
- The 64-year-old Kelly is in the midst of his first college football season away from the sideline after spending the prior 35 seasons as a head coach, including the past four seasons at LSU.
- 26, 2025, when Kelly was fired following a disappointing 5-3 start to last season.
- And despite some difficulties watching the game, Kelly couldn’t help but acknowledge how impressive the 8th-ranked Tigers (1-0) looked in its first game under new head coach Lane Kiffin .
- As in, national championship expectations in 2026.