Brian Kelly addresses backlash from leaving Notre Dame, rooting for Irish in National Championship

Brian Kelly‘s surprise exit from Notre Dame to take over at LSU has never sat well with Fighting Irish fans.

But, at least from the third-year Tigers head coach’s perspective, there’s no hard feelings. In fact, Kelly is even pulling for Notre Dame against Ohio State ahead of next Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game from Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

“I’m happy for all those guys, I pull for them,” Kelly told CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello after attending Tuesday’s American Football Coaches Association meeting in Charlotte. “A lot of the guys there that are on both sides of the ball, I recruited. Obviously I want to see those guys win it all, and I think they’re in a great position. Totally excited for those guys.”

Kelly’s decision to leave the Irish days after their regular-season finale and ahead of the program’s appearance in the 2021 College Football Playoffs after 12 seasons in South Bend sent shockwaves across the college football landscape.

At the time, Kelly explained the move to LSU as wanting “to be in an environment where I have the resourses to win a national championship.”

Notre Dame fans didn’t take too kindly to those comments, which Kelly believes were taken out of context.

“They’re selling it the way they want to sell it,” Kelly told CBS Sports. “Why do you leave Notre Dame? You leave Notre Dame because you’re taking another challenge. I took Notre Dame to championships. It’s just the way you want to twist it: ‘You only leave Notre Dame to go win a championship.’ I wasn’t leaving Notre Dame because I couldn’t win a championship. You can win championships at Notre Dame, but I chose another path because I wanted a different challenge.”

Kelly went 113-40 over his dozen years at Notre Dame, but struggled with a 1-7 record against AP Top 5 teams. Meanwhile, Kelly’s replacement, former defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, has gone 3-2 against Top 5 teams over his three seasons leading the Irish, including two wins in this season’s CFP run.

Paul Finebaum takes jab at Brian Kelly during praise of Marcus Freeman

For what they’ve done in making the national championship this year, Paul Finebaum has applauded the three-year turnaround at Notre Dame.

On ESPN’s Get Up last Friday, Finebaum discussed what it means for the Fighting Irish to be in the national title game in the College Football Playoff. He started with praise of Marcus Freeman for the job he has done to get them there, especially considering the lone loss that is on their record.

“Well, I’m going to talk about coach here as well and that’s Marcus Freeman. Just an extraordinary job of bringing them back,” Finebaum said. “I sat here, I was the first one to write them off and say that they’re done. So let me compliment Marcus Freeman.”

However, this is also a justification for what Notre Dame can be in the modern day. That, as Finebaum noted, is now the opposite of what Brian Kelly thought about the program when leaving there for Baton Rouge in 2022.

“Let me also go back three years to another point in time. Notre Dame hasn’t been in a national championship game since the ’12 season. That’s when Brian Kelly – yes, Brian Kelly – lost by 28 points to Alabama in Miami,” Finebaum recalled. “I just couldn’t help but think that Brian Kelly, three years ago, said, ‘I’m leaving Notre Dame because I want to win a national championship and the only place I can do that is LSU!’ And here is Marcus Freeman, who was his assistant briefly, and he’s now brought this team back and so much credit to him and amazing staff. I’ll let my friends here talk about the players that made the difference but it was an amazing thing to watch.”

Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.