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Brian Kelly recalls decision to leave Notre Dame for LSU: 'We got the program back to where it needed to be'

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz5 hours agoNickSchultz_7

When Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU in December 2021, it sent a shockwave across the college football world. He was the winningest coach in Fighting Irish history and had just finished his 12th regular season in South Bend, which made his departure so surprising.

As he looked back, though, Kelly said he didn’t necessarily plan on leaving Notre Dame. In fact, he told SiriusXM College Sports Radio’s Dusty Dvoracek and Danny Kanell that he and his wife just built their dream house near campus.

That’s why Kelly recalled not necessarily looking to leave Notre Dame, but said he had a goal to restore the Fighting Irish to national prominence when he took over in 2010. The Irish achieved just that, Kelly said, and he saw an opportunity to chase a national championship at LSU.

“We had no intentions of leaving Notre Dame,” Kelly said. “I was, and still [am], the longest-serving head coach. The all-time winningest coach. We had no idea that this was going to come upon us or we wouldn’t have done those things. They’re really difficult. I think what the ultimate decision was for us is, we got the program back to where it needed to be.

“Our deal coming in was, we need to get this program back to being an elite program. Everybody associates success with winning national championships or winning Super Bowls or World Series. I get that. I totally get that. But that wasn’t our mindset. Our mindset was to get this program back and be a consistent force in college football. So in some instances, we felt like our job had been completed and we had one more challenge left. And that was to win a national championship. That’s what the mindset was leading into that decision.”

During his time at Notre Dame, Kelly amassed a 113-40 overall record. His 113 wins moved him past the great Knute Rockne for the most in program history, although 21 of them were officially vacated by the NCAA due to academic violations. After taking over at LSU, Kelly went 34-14 with one SEC Championship appearance.

As he looked back on his departure, Brian Kelly also defended his comments at the time about contending for a national title at LSU. He made it clear it wasn’t a slight toward Notre Dame.

“This is all context. You can take what I said in any form or context and provide the right kind of answer that you want,” Kelly said. “What I said is that I would never leave Notre Dame unless I could go to a place to win a national championship. I never said you couldn’t win a national championship at Notre Dame. But when you say something like that, the context of – I was answering the question relative to, ‘What school would you go to?’ I would only go to a place where I felt like I could win a national championship.

“It wasn’t, ‘I’m leaving here because I can’t win a national championship at Notre Dame.’ But it certainly was taken that way. So, context is important. I think the people that were in that interview with me clearly understood what I was talking about.”