An already crazy college football coaching cycle kicked up a level to insanity Sunday evening as LSU made the jaw-dropping decision to fire Brian Kelly after a 5-3 start to 2025, triggering a $50-plus million buyout in the process.
Kelly wasn’t unsuccessful in Baton Rouge. He finished his tenure at 34-14 overall. But he never made the playoff or came close to winning a SEC championship.
Expectations will be incredibly high for whoever succeeds Kelly. LSU will be the best job available this cycle, and for good reason: The three coaches before Kelly won national championships. These are a few candidates that make sense in Baton Rouge after talking with industry sources.
Top candidates
Lane Kiffin, HC, Ole Miss
Already at the center of one blueblood coaching search, Kiffin could find himself in the middle of three SEC heavyweights. The Rebels want to resign him. Florida wants him to be its next head coach. Now, Kiffin is the most popular name when you talk with industry sources about potential replacements in Baton Rouge. Kiffin has all the requisite experience to succeed in the SEC, showing the ability to elevate the Rebels into an annual SEC contender. Kiffin would be a plug-and-play replacement for Kelly, someone whose offensive acumen could instantly elevate the Tigers.
Lane Kiffin’s big win over Oklahoma is great news for Ole Miss — but bad news for Florida coaching search
John Talty
Joe Brady, OC, Buffalo Bills
The one-time 29-year-old offensive coordinator of the 2019 LSU national championship team, the now 36-year-old Brady has a half-decade of NFL experience and is a rising head coaching candidate in those circles. Brady’s been hesitant to return to college in the past, but would one of the best coaching jobs in the country be enough to lure him back to the place he first began his ascent? Penn State is also looking at Brady this cycle.
James Franklin, former Penn State coach
Franklin is the most qualified coach on the open market despite his split from Penn State earlier this year. He’s won 68% of his games as a head coach, leading Penn State and Vanderbilt to remarkably successful runs. But would LSU really go hire another coach from the Midwest with few ties in the Southeast? I’m not sure it’s a hire that would excite the fan base.
Jon Sumrall, HC, Tulane
A former SEC linebacker who’s worked in the Southeast his entire career, Sumrall has done nothing but win since emerging as a head coach in 2022. He went 23-4 in two seasons with Troy, and he’s now 15-6 in a season-and-a-half with Tulane. There’s no hotter name among Group of Five head coaches, and Sumrall is expected to be deeply in the mix if the Auburn job were to come open. But would LSU really want to hire Tulane’s head coach? I’m not sure if it would create enough of a splash.
Marcus Freeman, HC, Notre Dame
If you look at LSU athletic director Scott Woodward’s history of hiring head coaches in any sport, there’s one commonality – he makes big swings. He landed Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. He lured Kelly away from Notre Dame. Could he convince another head coach to leave South Bend? Industry sources haven’t slammed the door shut on Freeman being a candidate at Florida, and you could argue LSU is the better job. It still seems rather unlikely Freeman would leave Notre Dame for anywhere but the NFL. But if Woodward is going to make a run at somebody, he might as well swing big.
It’s CRAZY but …
Jimbo Fisher, former Texas A&M coach
Reunited and it feels so good! I know suggesting Fisher here seems absurd. But remember it’s Woodward who hired Fisher at Texas A&M and believed in him to such a degree he gave Fisher a historically lucrative contract to lure him from Florida State. Fisher’s star has obviously dimmed. But Woodward actively pursued Fisher when he conducted LSU’s search in 2021. Fisher has deep ties to LSU and is a national championship-winning coach. It’s a marriage that makes a lot of sense if you can ignore Fisher’s last two seasons in College Station.
Dabo Swinney, HC, Clemson
Again, big swings. Swinney is amid his worst season as Clemson’s head coach since 2010. Could Woodward follow his Texas A&M playbook and lure a national champion to Baton Rouge? Swinney is a proven program builder and would seem to fit in at LSU culturally in a way Kelly never managed to. If Swinney wants a fresh start, you could pick much worse places than Baton Rouge to do so. But like Fisher, you must wonder if Swinney would be a sexy enough hire at this point in his career.
Nick Saban, former Alabama coach
Look, I did say crazy. It was only earlier this week when Saban said, “I want to stay retired.” But if there was a non-Alabama job that could tempt Saban, it’d be LSU, the place he won his first national championship. Would he take the job if offered? Probably not. But Woodward’s history tells you he’ll at least ask.
