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Brian Kelly provides greater detail on departure for LSU: ‘I never ran from Notre Dame’

photos -jpgby:Ashton Pollard•05/26/22•

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(Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

As he approaches six months since his move from Notre Dame to LSU, Tigers head coach Brian Kelly has had some time to reflect on his decision and how everything unfolded. Kelly joined the most recent episode of Varsity House Podcast, which is hosted by former Notre Dame defensive back Shaun Crawford, and opened up about the seemingly quick departure from South Bend to Baton Rouge.

“I’ve always felt you never run from a job, you run to a job,” Kelly said. “I never ran from Notre Dame, I ran to an opportunity.”

On Nov. 30, two days after Notre Dame concluded its regular season at Stanford, it became known that Kelly would be leaving behind the program at which he had won 113 games. The move sent shockwaves through college football, especially since Notre Dame was still in the picture to make its third College Football Playoff appearance in four years. LSU made the formal announcement the following day, just hours after Kelly gave a brief parting speech to the Irish team and hopped on a flight.

The public timeline was clear, but Crawford inquired about how things went on behind the scenes that week.

“It was quick,” Kelly said. “With a lot of these timelines, head coaches never have the ability to say ‘I’m doing this, I’m doing that.’ It’s the school that’s telling you ‘Hey, you have a short window here or we’re going to go with the other guy.’ The whole scenario lasted about a week from start to finish.”

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Lessons learned by Kelly

LSU is Kelly’s fifth head coaching stop, and he’s been running a program for more than three decades. What has he learned while making the moves from school to school?

“I think what my experience tells me is that you can’t control the situation when it comes to moving on to the next job,” Kelly said.

His departure from Notre Dame bore a resemblance to his departure for Notre Dame. Similar to what happened in South Bend, the information was leaked while he was at the Cincinnati team banquet. He was the head coach for the Bearcats from 2006-09 and went 34-6.

“Think of how difficult that situation is, right?” Kelly added. “When you tell your team ‘I will tell you first,’ and you’re assured (by the other party) that it won’t get leaked out. Then you’re giving out trophies, and the guys’ phones are lighting up that you’re going to Notre Dame.”

Kelly added the timing with any coach departure will never be great because the team one is leaving is always in a position to do well. Otherwise, the coach would not have the opportunity to go elsewhere.

“So once you enter into that situation, you have to be prepared for the worst case scenario.”

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