Brian Kelly on his future as LSU head coach amid disappointing season: ‘That’s not my decision’

The Brian Kelly era at LSU hit rock bottom Saturday night as the Tigers were blown out at home by No. 3 Texas A&M 49-25.

LSU was out-gained 426-278 and recorded six less first downs in the loss. After opening the season ranked in the top-10 (and even jumping up to No. 3 following a season-opening win over No. 4 Clemson), the Tigers will now be unranked with four weeks remaining in the regular season.

The loss has ramped up the heat even hotter than it ever has been on Kelly this season. The conversations were loud following losses to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, but they are impossible not to hear now. Following the loss, Kelly was asked about his future as LSU‘s head coach.

“That’s out of my hands,” Kelly said. “It’s impossible for the head coach, that’s been here for four years and 35 years of doing this, to think anything else but ‘this is my responsibility and we’ve got to get it turned around.’ That’s not my decision in terms of whether I’m here or not.”

“But that’s what I will do as a head coach that’s been doing this for over three decades. When things are not going well from a football standpoint, the head football coach has to be agile enough and able to make those changes and find out what we need to do to get our football team to play better.”

Game against Texas A&M was tabbed as a ‘last-stand’ for LSU

Heading into the game, multiple college football personalities claimed that this was a ‘must-win’ game for LSU. In his first three seasons, Kelly failed to lead the Tigers to the College Football Playoff and a loss on Saturday would have all but dashed those hopes for a fourth season. The game came and went and LSU‘s CFP hopes are dead.

“This is a last stand for LSU,” ESPN‘s Rece Davis said on the ‘College GameDay Podcast‘ earlier this week. “It doesn’t mean that they won’t win another game if they don’t win that. But it’s a last stand in terms of relevance. It started the season top five, had a guy that many assumed would be in contention to be the first overall pick in the NFL Draft at quarterback (Garrett Nussmeier) and had year two of a defense that has been good. Everything was in line, but now they’ve lost two (now three) games.”

Now, LSU has four regular season games remaining (No. 4 Alabama, Arkansas, Western Kentucky and No. 13 Oklahoma) to improve its bowl game placement. Beyond that however is up to administration whether or not they want to undergo a Year 5 of BK in Baton Rouge.