LSU Tigers football coach Brian Kelly is running out of chances in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Kelly’s Tigers fell to 5-2 on the 2025 season with a 31-24 loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores at FirstBank Stadium on Saturday. With it, LSU’s chances to make the College Football Playoff have plummeted to near-single-digit percentage points, according to ESPN.
In a piece exploring Kelly’s $58.2 million buyout, CBS Sports’ Robby Kalland defined the Tigers’ next two matchups against the Texas A&M Aggies and Alabama Crimson Tide, the latter of which comes after a bye week, as Kelly’s last stand with LSU.
“After losing to Ole Miss at home in Week 6, LSU went on the road and lost to Vanderbilt in Week 8 and are now looking up at a number of teams above them in the SEC standings. With No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 6 Alabama looming on the schedule in the next two weeks, pressure is at an all-time high for Kelly to lead the Tigers to big wins if he's going to quiet the noise about his job status,” Kalland wrote.
“With the loss in Nashville, Kelly is now 34-13 in his four seasons at LSU, where the Tigers have lost at least three games in each of his first three seasons in charge and failed to reach the Playoff. Given the expectation at LSU is to win national championships, that streak continuing for a fourth consecutive year would certainly raise questions about whether Kelly should remain in his post leading the Tigers.”
Kelly gave up money in his contract to fund the program’s NIL push this offseason. Another head coach who did that: Mike Gundy, who the Oklahoma State Cowboys fired at the end of September after 21 seasons in charge.
The “Million Dollar Match Challenge” has fallen flat on its face, which is an embarrassing look for a coach. Kelly’s push to be competitive was given a name, pomp, and pageantry. If it ends up with the same results, not making the CFP, then a change is obvious.
In many ways, Kelly was set up to fail if the top-rated transfer portal class didn’t perform on the field.
Then again, that top-rated transfer portal class was supposed to make his team a winner. So he was also set up to thrive.