HANAGRIFF: It’s Kelly’s time to lead

By Charles Hanagriff

Before I bought the house my wife and I live in now, there was another one that I really liked. 

I had scouted the neighborhood and done all my research on price. I had secured my financing, walked the property multiple times and had an inspection. With one exception, the report came back clean. 

There was an issue with the air conditioning unit. Air conditioning being only slightly less important in Baton Rouge than, say, a roof with no holes, I wanted another opinion on whether the unit could be repaired or needed to be replaced. 

On Friday I prepared two offers, one for each scenario, and made an appointment to have the unit checked that Monday. The agent responded that either offer would likely be accepted, depending on what the last inspection revealed. 

On Sunday morning the agent called me and told me the house had been sold. A huge company had an employee relocating to Baton Rouge that needed a move-in ready house.  They got the specs over the phone, paid cash, bought it sight unseen, and that was that. 

I couldn’t even make a counter.  The company paid over the listing price. I think they closed before I had lunch on Monday.  To this day, I don’t know if the air conditioner needed to be replaced. 

Brian Kelly does not have any problems buying houses. Just quarterbacks. 

He scouted all the quarterbacks and found the one he liked best.  He did all his research, made his best offer, had that offer agreed to, and had diligently worked the relationship for close to a year. 

Then the big company came in and blew his offer away. No counteroffer. No negotiation. No “thanks, but no thanks” card with a handwritten note attached. 

That’s just how it is now. I speculated to my radio partner Richard Dickson, himself once a highly rated prospect, that recruiting was now probably 95% about the money. 

He told me my number was 5% too low. 

So Brian Kelly, a 63-year-old coach closing in on 300 career victories, with his spot in the College Football Hall of Fame guaranteed and his financial future secure, had a decision to make. 

He could throw up his hands and say the hell with it. This isn’t the game he grew up in. This isn’t the way he would prefer to coach. This isn’t a sustainable model for anyone. He could walk away and find a much easier way to fill his days. 

A bunch of coaches at similar stages of their careers, in multiple sports, have done just that since NIL became the law of the land.   

Instead, Kelly came out firing on Monday. Instead of the previously passive approach to the transfer portal, LSU would be “aggressive.” He talked about impending revenue sharing, total roster building and managing the “cap”. 

Loosely translated, LSU will be near the top when it comes to revenue sharing next year. They probably won’t be number one, but they will be financed well enough to be extremely competitive. 

The total roster building means that they can offer more to incoming recruits, both high school and in the portal, and still keep the core of the returning roster intact.  There are no sacred cows on the current team to upset with payment structure, and the money saved by Bryce Underwood’s decommitment will be spent, not diverted into a  rainy day fund. 

It’s been a week since the Underwood bombshell hit. It’s a particularly good sign that nobody else in the class has yet followed him out the door. It was an even better sign that LSU gave a strong effort in their win against Vanderbilt. Kelly has lost games, but he hasn’t lost this team. 

He hasn’t lost the program either. Despite the awful run of the previous month, Kelly still trails only Alabama and Georgia in SEC record since he came on campus. Hardly a situation in peril. 

Which is not to say there aren’t concerns.  There is still a week until Signing Day, and obviously anything can happen.  A large budget for college “free agents” in the portal is no guarantee for success (ask the 2023 New York Mets). There will be many holes to fill and questions to be answered for the 2025 Tigers. 

In the meantime, though, Kelly has bought back in. Maybe he underestimated the recruiting challenges when he got to Baton Rouge, or in regards to NIL, but he certainly knows now. Armed with that knowledge, and a healthy budget, he seems eager for the fight.  That is not automatic these days. 

The trying times are when everyone looks to the leader. The time between now and the late signing period are arguably the most important days of Kelly’s LSU tenure. 

It’s his time to lead.