Less than a full week after Penn State unceremoniously parted ways with James Franklin, the former Nittany Lions head coach was in full-on sales mode.
He flew down to Athens, Ga., for an appearance on ESPN’s in order to take a few softball questions from the panel of analysts and had quite a simple message to convey to the slew of athletic directors who will be in need of a new coach at some point in the next month or two.
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In sharp contrast, all has been silent around another high-profile buyout recipient the last two weeks in Brian Kelly.
The former LSU head coach’s final publicly available words that carried beyond the reach of the team facility came close to midnight in Baton Rouge following a blowout loss to Texas A&M in Death Valley on Oct. 25.
“That’s not my decision as to whether I am here or not,” said Kelly, still carrying a tone like he planned to have a job the following day.
Kelly, however, lasted barely 12 hours after uttering such a statement before being ushered off into the buyout life during a wild couple of days at LSU that also saw his former boss canned and the state’s governor wrestle control of the narrative several times.
Whether the forced silence since is a strategy or simply a natural reaction to getting fired for the first time as a head coach remains to be seen, but Kelly looms as one of the most notable names suddenly available on a coaching carousel that could spin faster and further than ever before.
It’s easy to see why some athletic director or search committee may see Kelly as a viable option, too, explaining away the departure from the bayou as simply the case of a culture mismatch between one of the most unique jobs in college football and a hardened Massachusetts native. He did take LSU to the SEC championship game, won 71% of his games in Baton Rouge and produced a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback and potentially another first rounder under center in Garrett Nussmeier, too.
Add in his time taking Notre Dame to a national championship game and the College Football Playoff, elevating Cincinnati into a BCS bowl team, turning around Central Michigan plus winning a pair of NCAA Division II titles and you would be hard pressed to find anybody who could match the set of accomplishments Kelly has in this frothy coaching market unless Nick Saban or Urban Meyer suddenly want to jump back in.
Heck, up until the school announced he was let go two weeks ago, Kelly even held the belt as the winningest active head coach in the NCAA with over 300 victories to his name.
The question stands though, will he want that title back for the 2026 season? Just as important, especially to many of the coaching-starved fan bases out there, where could he actually land?
Penn State
Franklin’s old job in State College would be the best available option for Kelly. It’s certainly closer to the part of the country that he knows well and has recruited heavily before. It’s a program that has championship aspirations—and resources—that would appeal and would be in a conference that offers up a stage that the head coach is comfortable on. After an alum like Matt Rhule essentially passed on the job and Curt Cignetti signed a mega-deal to do the same, someone like Kelly could rightfully be described as one of the few names that checks off the right boxes in terms of accomplishments and a history of quarterback development that could do more than win the news conference.
However, Franklin was a demanding coach the last few years in terms of pushing for more and more support away from the field—which didn’t exactly endear himself to some supporters. Kelly, despite leaning into his reputation as a CEO coach, hasn’t exactly been the easiest to get along with over the years and it was telling that there was not a ton of effusive praise or affection for him after he left South Bend in 2021 or in the days since LSU made a change.
Does Penn State want to go down that road with a recalcitrant leader even if it had somebody who would seem like an obvious fit? That may be in the back of the mind of athletic director Pat Kraft if the Nittany Lions go in a different direction.
It seems unlikely that any of the open SEC jobs would give Kelly another chance in the league given the high-profile demise at LSU. Both Florida and Auburn figure to go for someone much younger in their searches anyway and likely would want to avoid having to answer questions about why they nabbed Kelly after just witnessing two veteran coaches who knew the conference well flame out with short tenures.
You can’t see him dropping down to take a gig like Arkansas either—much less picture Kelly trying to call the Hogs given the missteps he made at LSU.
Dropping Down a Tier
Could Virginia Tech be an option in light of its increased investment in the program? Maybe, if Kelly would deem it prudent to take a job that, at its best, may have a tough time cracking the top third in the watered-down ACC.
Oklahoma State just got done dealing with the cantankerous Mike Gundy and it seems doubtful a coach like Kelly would even consider winding up in Stillwater before even considering what the Cowboys are looking for in their next head coach (i.e. someone much younger). He’s no stranger to the Farm from his time at rival Notre Dame but it would likewise be hard to see general manager Andrew Luck hiring somebody who is the antithesis of what Stanford values in a head coach in terms of being overly level-headed and calm on the sidelines.
Among the currently open jobs, that could just leave UCLA as a possibility. It’s in Los Angeles and in the Big Ten, which might be appealing. The talk among supporters sounds real as to finally going all-in on football now too. But it seems doubtful Kelly could handle being a second-class citizen in the market behind USC (and a slew of other professional teams) after being the star of the show for much of the past two decades at Notre Dame and LSU.
Dropping down to take a Group of 5 job, of course, would be anathema to his persona too.
Broadcasting
Perhaps it could be wiser for Kelly to sit back, work on cutting down his handicap on the golf course, spend some time at home and maybe wind up on the desk for an outlet like NBC. He would be a great addition for the Peacock crew, perhaps even better suited to television than Saban is at ESPN or Meyer on Fox given Kelly’s background in politics from back in the day. It would also provide the perfect platform to remind all the athletic directors (and eager boosters) out there that he hasn’t forgotten what it takes to win at the highest levels either.
Because based on what’s available out there right now, even if Kelly wants to get right back into coaching, he may well find it to be quite the humbling market he finds himself in with far more initial nos than yeses.
Maybe that’s why silence is indeed golden the last few weeks in the case of a coach who has won over 300 games—even if that was not quite good enough at his last stop.
