Kirk Herbstreit addresses whether Brian Kelly could have handled LSU, Notre Dame better

Kirk Herbstreit may be the most plugged-in member of the college football media community and has strong feelings on the recent coaching carousel, including Brian Kelly’s sudden departure from Notre Dame.

The former Ohio State quarterback joined ESPN in 1996, and since College GameDay boomed into one of the most successful programs on the network, Herbstreit has cemented himself as the go-to analyst when it comes to giving fans insight into the behind-the-scenes aspects of teams, players and the biggest storylines in the sport.

Earlier this week, Herbstreit joined the Dan Patrick show and was asked directly about Kelly’s sudden departure from South Bend.

“Is there a tactful way for these coaches to leave for another job,” Patrick asked. “Like, could Brian Kelly have done it differently that would have appeased more people?”

Herbstreit then provided unique insight into all of the moving factors in play when it comes to these college football coaching searches.

“Yeah I think the challenge I think people don’t understand is the recruiting aspect of it and the timing of the recruiting,” Herbstreit said. “The early signing period is a week from tomorrow. These athletic directors are running a ‘tempo offense’ to try to make a good hire, to get a guy to the podium, win the press conference and literally walk out of that press conference and into a high school.”

The College Gameday host believes the timing all comes down to recruiting.

“And so there is urgency on the USC side, or on the Notre Dame side or on the LSU side,” Herbstreit added. “There’s urgency to try to make a hire because you want to get the right guy and try to salvage a recruiting class.

“We always focus on, how does Brian Kelly leave his team like that? How does Lincoln Riley leave his team like that?”

Kirk Herbstreit gives opinion on how coaching hires should work

While fans, players and supporters are emotionally invested, Herbstreit offered an idea for a standard protocol when it comes to these in-season coaching moves.

“So for me, because I talk to a lot of these athletic directors and coaches kind of behind-the-scenes, in the latter part of November and into December. It’s a little bit of a game because they want to be respectful of a coach trying to finish a team’s season,” Herbstreit said.

“So how do you do it tactfully? I think you finish your regular season, if you go to conference championship, you have your agent–or whoever is talking to the AD–say he’s coming. Let him get to the finish line. You get to the finish line, if you qualify for the playoff, you go do your press conference at tour new school, you start to put a staff together behind-the-scenes and then you go back and try to finish the playoff. That’s what ideally I would like to see.”

It didn’t take long for Notre Dame to move on from Kelly and elevate Marcus Freeman to head coach. Freeman is widely considered one of the top rising defensive coordinator in the country and despite Kelly’s attempt to sway him to LSU, he took over the Irish program.

Kirk Herbstreit noted the scenario that could have truly taken place this year and one of the reasons Notre Dame fans are especially frustrated with the Kelly move, in particular.

“Could you imagine if Notre Dame, and there were some upsets in front of them and Notre Dame made the College Football Playoff?” Herbstreit said. “Marcus Freeman’s first game as a head coach would have been in a Playoff because of how it happened.”

For now, it appears Freeman is the right man for the job, and while Notre Dame fans may be disappointed, it’s clear the business side of college football can often be the most important even when it hurts.