Earlier this week LSU fired head coach Brian Kelly after another disappointing start to their season. Kelly was expected to bring a championship to LSU when he was hired in 2021, and while he did make the SEC Championship game in his first season with the Tigers, he was unable to win a championship of any kind.
LSU will be one of the most attractive job openings this offseason. The Tigers are in the middle of a recruiting hot bed with no in-state competition for those recruits. The three head coaches before Kelly also won a National Championship as well, so it's clear what any coach can accomplish there.
Kirby Smart recently spoke about LSU firing Kelly, and he issued a warning to whoever the next head coach will be. Smart spent a season on Nick Saban's LSU staff in 2004, and he told a story how someone told him that he was just borrowing the office he was in. Smart knew exactly what this person meant by that.
"I knew then if you didn't win you wouldn't be there long," Smart said via 247sports.com.
Kirby Smart cautions next LSU head coach
Expectations to compete at a high level exist at a lot of schools. That is the case at Georgia and many other programs in the SEC as well. But LSU arguably has higher expectations than any program in the country, and if they are not met that coach will be fired rather quickly.
Smart learned almost 20 years ago how short of a leash coaches have at LSU, and that is the warning he sent to whoever LSU's next head coach will be.
It will be interesting to see who becomes LSU's next head coach. The Tigers are always a program that is capable of winning the SEC and knocking Georgia off their throne, so this is a hire the Bulldogs should pay close attention to. But Smart has Georgia humming, so whoever LSU's next coach is will have a difficult time getting past UGA.