How Brian Kelly is handling Matt House’s future with LSU

Jayden Daniels is likely going to run away with the Heisman Trophy later this month — but LSU is nowhere near the College Football Playoff.

While LSU might boast college football’s best player, the Tigers have suffered three defeats this season thanks to their defensive woes. In those three losses, LSU put up a total of 101 points while allowing a staggering 142. While all three losses came against teams that finished in the top 11 in the final CFP rankings — it’s obvious Brian Kelly needs to make a change or two in Baton Rouge.

Bengal Tiger’s Shea Dixon joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss what that change should be, and whether defensive coordinator Matt House should be worried about his future with the program heading into the offseason.

“Look at Brian Kelly’s track record over the past decade plus — which is at Notre Dame and Cincinnati,” Dixon said. “He brought the [Bob] Diaco over from Cincinnati, he wins a Broyles Award as a defensive coordinator. He has guys like Clark Lea, Mike Elko, Marcus Freeman, all these that he hired who are head coaches now in the SEC and at Notre Dame. I mean, these are highly regarded defensive minds.

“The miss was Brian VanGorder. Obviously, he fired Brian VanGorder in year three. He talked about it this week actually with the media. He said that three games into that season, I fired my defensive coordinator and he stood in my wedding with me — so I know how tough these decisions are. … I don’t know what that means for Matt House because he’s after year two now, where in year one he had even fewer pieces to work with.”

Last year, LSU was a middle-of-the-road defensive team in the SEC and nationally — but this season was much worse. This team can put up 600 yards of offensive and score seven touchdowns against Ole Miss and still lose — which they did, 55-49.

That can’t happen. Not at LSU and not in the SEC. If you have the best offense in America, you have to back it up and that’s why Brian Kelly is in charge. He knows how to hire his defensive staff and if it isn’t working out, he gets paid north of $9 million annually to make tough decisions for the betterment of the program.

At the end of the day, it’s all about one common goal for the Tigers — bringing a national championship home to Baton Rouge for the first time since 2019.

“At this point in his career — remember he’s been coaching 30-plus years — he’s got a D2 national championships. What he’s chasing is a national championship at the FBS level,” Dixon continued. “LSU is his final stop. He came to the SEC for this opportunity. [The CFP is] expanding to 12 teams, and he knows that it’s sort of now or never.”