Report: Brian Kelly expected to hire former member of his Notre Dame staff at LSU

As he begins his second week as the new head football coach at LSU, Brian Kelly is beginning to build his staff.

Jacob Flint, the Notre Dame co-director of strength and conditioning, is reportedly headed to Baton Rouge with him. The rumor had been circulating for a few days, but Brody Miller of “The Athletic” all but confirmed the transition on Tuesday. Flint would be the first coach to leave South Bend to join Kelly at LSU.

Flint has traveled with Kelly to multiple stops during his career. He was a walk-on at Central Michigan while Kelly was the head coach, earning a scholarship in his final season in 2005. Additionally, Flint spent 2007-2009 at Cincinnati with Kelly before coming to Notre Dame with him in 2010.

Flint spent the last few years of his time at Notre Dame working alongside Matt Balis, Notre Dame’s director of football performance. Balis elected not to follow Kelly to LSU.

Flint to replace an LSU legend

The Michigan native would replace longtime LSU strength coach Tommy Moffitt. Moffitt had been in his role since 2000, so he was there for LSU’s national title seasons in 2003, 2007 and 2019 under Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron, respectively.

Moffitt is considered by many in college football to be one of the nation’s elite strength and conditioning coaches. In his 19 years with LSU, he trained the Tigers on their way to 187 victories — easily the winningest stretch in school history for the program.

Several LSU alums were not pleased with the decision, including former fullback Jacob Hester and former center T-Bob Hebert.

“I hated to hear the news that Coach Moffitt wasn’t being retained at LSU,” Hester tweeted. “I knew this day would come eventually, and I knew it would feel like this. Tommy Moffitt was the person that molded me to be the player I was from Day 1 on campus. #YeahYeahYeah.”

Evidently, Moffitt had a huge impact on the third-round draft pick turned member of the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. Hebert echoed Hester’s statement.

“Tommy Moffitt is my favorite coach I ever had in my entire life,” Hebert tweeted. “Pushed me to levels I didn’t know I could achieve. Showed me the importance of physical and mental strength. Prepared me for life. And taught me how to crank dat mothafuggin diesel! I love this man.”

On3’s Stephen Samra contributed to this report.