Brian Kelly discusses leaving Notre Dame, future of the program

Brian Kelly’s teams are annual fixtures in the College Football Playoff hunt. Notre Dame was one of the four most-popular teams in the CFP field since its invention, with each participating team headed up by Kelly.

Now, he’ll be hoping to bring LSU to that same destination. The new Tigers head coach made his SEC Media Days debut Monday afternoon, where he was asked about his previous job and why he migrated to an SEC program.

To which Kelly answered: “They love football, they love family, and they love food. That fits me really well. I guess I should have been in the SEC all along.”

He also added the the move came at “the right time at the right place. The place was perfect,” he said of Baton Rouge and LSU as a whole.

Kelly was also asked about the future of Notre Dame amid all the conference realignment rumors and happenings. Here was his response:

“It’s not been high on my list of things to think about. I’ve been trying to correct my slice the last two weeks.”

He then continued, praising Notre Dame.

“Notre Dame is still a coveted university. Jack Swarbrick knows what he’s doing.”

And Kelly believes that the Fighting Irish will be fine in the future no matter how the conference arms race winds up shaking out.

“They’re going to land in a good position no matter what they do — if they stay independent or whether they go into one of the other conferences.”

Golf jokes aside, Brian Kelly is over his old job. It’s all about the Purple and Gold for the new head coach at the moment. He was at Notre Dame plenty long enough to know that their athletic department, especially the football team, is going to succeed regardless of whether they stay solo or join another league.