Brian Kelly sounds off on lack of support at Notre Dame, impact on LSU decision

When Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU, questions rose as to why he’d leave after becoming the winningest coach in Fighting Irish history. He shed some light on that this week in a couple interviews, including one with CBS Sports.

Kelly spoke with Dennis Dodd and opened up about the facilities and support at Notre Dame and the impact that had on his decision to take his new job. He first brought up the Guglielmino Athletics Complex — also known as “The Gug” — which is where the locker rooms and training rooms are. He pointed out the lack of food options and training table in the building.

“Did you walk into the Gug?” Kelly asked Dodd. “There is no training table. We bring food in from the cafeteria. You get a sack lunch, a box lunch.”

Kelly also said he asked for improvements to the building six years ago. Those changes didn’t happen, and Kelly noticed.

“That building had been built not to service those areas,” Kelly said. “That wasn’t the vision the university had. I don’t have a problem with that. They had built that building to meet and locker and that’s it. We had outgrown that. I had asked for that to be addressed in 2016, and we were at 2022.”

Brian Kelly reveals reasoning behind leaving Notre Dame, taking LSU job

Kelly’s comments to Dodd came the same day Ralph D. Russo dropped a story in the Associated Press about Kelly’s decision to leave Notre Dame. He further opened up about his decision to leave South Bend for Baton Rouge.

“I felt like I did everything that I could at Notre Dame and they felt like they did everything they could for me,” Kelly told Russo. “I felt like we had both got to a point where this is what they could do, right? This is what I did. And we couldn’t get past that. OK? And so here we are.”

Kelly took Notre Dame to the CFP in 2018 and 2020, but didn’t win a game either year. He had the Fighting Irish in position to make it in this past year, but they ended up just missing out as Cincinnati took the No. 4 ranking. Notre Dame ended up playing in the Fiesta Bowl in an eventual loss to Oklahoma State on New Year’s Day.

Overall, Kelly had 113 wins at Notre Dame — 21 of which were vacated by the NCAA, but are still recognized by the program — to become the winningest coach in program history. He said he appreciated his 12 years in South Bend, but it was time for a change.

“I loved my time at Notre Dame,” Kelly said. “We were on different paths and that’s fine. I’m fine with that.”