Brady Quinn calls out Brian Kelly for Notre Dame departure for LSU

Plenty of Notre Dame faithful were very upset with how their former head coach, Brian Kelly, left for LSU. The move came before Notre Dame knew whether or not it make an appearance in the College Football Playoff, too. The school’s all-time leading passer, Brady Quinn, recently went on the Dan Patrick show to call out Kelly for bolting to LSU early.

Brady Quinn on Kelly to LSU

“He could have waited,” Quinn said. “He literally could have waited just a week. If LSU wanted Brian Kelly that bad, or let me put it this way, if coach Kelly wanted to leave Notre Dame, the most tactful way he could have done it is say to LSU–Look, I wanna come there. You want me. Let’s just push this thing off a week because if we have a chance to win and it works out this weekend where they’re actually in the College Football Playoff, I wanna go finish this job and try to coach this team to a national championship.

“And you should want that because you should want me to do the same thing if I’m in that position at LSU. And the reason I say that is, in part for the players, the coaches, everything he was able to accomplish during his time at Notre Dame, that’s just the proper way to do it. And also, for LSU, because he’s already done this before at Cincinnati. He built them up, got them to a New Year’s Six game and then left before that bowl game. Now he’s become the all-time winningest head coach at Notre Dame and left again at a time where you’re going, if you could’ve just waited a week to see if they’re playing for it. And if the team was playing for a New Year’s Six and they don’t make it in, so be it, no one’s going to hold it against you.”

Kelly began his college football coaching career at Grand Valley State and he’s climbed his way up the college football ranks the old-fashioned way. Then it was Central Michigan, then to Cincinnati, then to Notre Dame, and now, to LSU. Say what you want about Kelly, but he’s had a remarkable knack of timing as far as climbing the ladder of the coaching ranks is concerned. He’s also been incredibly successful everywhere he’s been.

Will he win the elusive national championship at LSU? That remains to be seen, but Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Alabama’s Nick Saban aren’t exactly going to roll over and hand him the trophy, he’ll have to go and take it from them.

“But now, I kind of warn LSU fans, you know he’s poked around at wanting to coach in the NFL at some point,” Quinn said. “What would exclude him from having a couple great seasons at LSU, which they’ll probably have some success and then he starts wanting to leave to go take an NFL job. I mean, the timing is a little different because of the seasons, but that’s what I have to say.”