LSU’s Brian Kelly gamble backfired but can ‘ultimate showman’ Lane Kiffin provide answers $95m bust could not?

On November 30, 2021, LSU stunned the college football world by hiring Brian Kelly to a 10-year, $95 million contract.

Exactly four years later, the Tigers signed Lane Kiffin to a seven-year, $91 million deal to be their head coach.

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Déjà vu? The Tiger faithful had better hope not.

Kelly didn’t last half the length of his original contract, and LSU still owes him the remaining $54 million. His time in Baton Rouge was an abject failure, and it cost the university dearly.

The failed experiment had a ripple effect not only on the university but on the state as a whole. Days after Kelly was fired, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry got involved and promised that a mistake like that wouldn’t happen again.

“You know, I’m not going to be picking the next coach, but I can promise you we’re gonna pick a coach and we’re gonna make sure that that coach is successful,” Landry said.

“We’re gonna make sure that he’s compensated properly, and we’re gonna put metrics on it because I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill.”

Landry heavily criticized former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward for handing out such a massive contract and leaving the school in a vulnerable, compromising position.

Since Landry’s comments, Woodward has been relieved of his duties, and Kiffin has been hired on a contract with a similar financial commitment.

Lesson learned? Hardly.

But here’s where this hire differs from the last one.

Kelly was about as much of a cultural fit at LSU as a polar bear in the desert. Kiffin, on the other hand? A match made in heaven.

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Of course, if Kelly had won, he could have pronounced ‘family’ however he wanted, and no one would have cared. But that’s the problem. Kelly didn’t win. Not to LSU’s standard.

He failed to qualify for the College Football Playoff in his three full seasons at the helm and was a disappointing 5–3 at the time of his firing.

That put a magnifying glass on everything Kelly did. What he said, how he said it, who he surrounded himself with, and who he didn’t. It was a disaster that lasted less than four years.

Juxtapose him with Kiffin, and you couldn’t find two more polar opposites. The former Ole Miss head coach is the ultimate troll, the ultimate showman.

He has roots in the South. He spent the last six seasons as the Rebels’ head coach and was previously the head coach at FAU. He also had stints as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama and a brief stop at Tennessee.

Kiffin knows his way around the SEC.

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However, hiring Kiffin means bringing everything that comes with him. The 50-year-old coach left Ole Miss to take the LSU job, even though Ole Miss is poised for a playoff run.

It was a messy exit, caused mostly by Kiffin dragging his feet.

But that chapter has now ended. Ole Miss will head to the postseason without the man who got them there, while LSU moves forward with another high-profile hire, paying him nearly nine figures.

It’s far too early to say whether LSU has learned its lesson, but given the number of zeros and commas in Kiffin’s contract, similar to Kelly’s, it’s fair to say they haven’t.

Kiffin has everything he needs to win and win big at LSU, just as he did at Ole Miss (debate that somewhere else). Now it’s time to deliver.

LSU quite literally can’t afford any other outcome.