At the gate waiting for my flight to Atlanta for the SEC championship game, I listened to a man professing to be a Notre Dame graduate chat up a woman decked out in purple LSU gear (I wasn't eavesdropping, they both were pretty loud).
"I'm so happy you took our coach," Notre Dame guy said.
"You want him back?" LSU woman asked.
They referred, of course, to Brian Kelly, one of those people, those coaches, about whom no one says, "I just don't have an opinion about him."
Kelly left Notre Dame fans with a sour taste after jilting them in 2021 to go to LSU. I suspect it isn't just him leaving, but leaving such a vaunted program to go ... there. If you don't think Notre Dame people look down their chinstraps at LSU, then the Fighting Irish's helmets aren't gold.
For many LSU fans, the luster has worn off of Kelly. They think he should be better than his 28-11 record, and perhaps they're right -- though his win-loss sheet at LSU is hardly awful. If you want awful, check out 2-10 Florida State that started this season in the top 10, or 3-9 Oklahoma State that was picked to win the Big 12. Kelly's Tigers may have disappointed after getting to No. 8 before a three-game skid knocked LSU from CFP contention and out of the polls, but Kelly's program has not been awful.
LSU can, and should, be better. As Kelly himself said after closing out the regular season with a somewhat redemptive win over Oklahoma, he didn't leave Notre Dame for LSU to go 8-4.
To be better, LSU needs better players. To get better players, LSU has to be more competitive in the NIL space and transfer portal. To be more competitive, LSU needs money to make attractive deals to bring in new talent or in some cases convince current talent to stick around.
Kelly made that plain Dec. 4 during his news conference to talk about LSU's new signing class, a glittering top-10 class that was shrouded by the late defection of No. 1-ranked quarterback prospect Bryce Underwood to Michigan.
On Friday, Kelly -- to use his own words -- put his money where his mouth is. He announced he and his wife Paqui were committing up to $1 million in donations to LSU's Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) to match donations for football made by supporters to the school's Bayou Traditions collective. Kelly's money by rule can not go to the collective, but obviously the idea is that his financial commitment will spur others to give while his money goes to coaches' salaries and facilities, etc.
A million dollars is a lot of cash, though considering Kelly made $10.2 million this year I think he can scratch by on a mere $9.2 million. And the donation is certainly a nice tax break.
But the point is Kelly is making a significant commitment to helping LSU win. This million matches the $1 million he donated in 2022 for renovations to the football facilities.
Look, Kelly doesn't have to be your cup of tea. You don't have to think he's done a good job at LSU, though personally I'd give him at least a B-minus at this point. And there have been times when you wondered how willing he was to do the heavy lifting required to recover from the two-year downturn at the end of the Ed Orgeron era.
But this is commitment. Big, bold and green. It didn't get Kelly any headlines on ESPN -- you search for "Brian Kelly news" there and you get that overblown story of him yelling with players at Florida -- but the world has made its mind up about him. Labeled him, put him on a shelf and moved on.
Now LSU moves on, and perhaps as the Tigers dive deeper into the transfer portal they can build a team that gives Kelly and quarterback Garrett Nussmeier a chance to live up to his wish for them to lift the national championship trophy together. It's at least possible now that Nussmeier has decided to return for the 2025 season.
Nussmeier's decision was best for LSU and for him. He has a great chance to return and have the kind of ascendency Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels had in Year Two as the starting quarterback. Not to say he will win the Heisman Trophy as well, but he will be on the short list of contenders as one of the top returning quarterbacks in the nation.
Kelly is trying to rebuild the roster around him. While the start of the transfer window has unnerved LSU fans with 16 Tigers departing -- plus those declaring early for the NFL draft like tackles Will Campbell and Emery Jones, and tight end Mason Taylor -- the pendulum is starting to swing back.
As of this writing, the Tigers have signed Oklahoma tight end Bauer Sharp, Florida cornerback Ja'Keem Jackson, Kentucky wide receiver Barion Brown and Nebraska edge rusher Jimari Butler. They also got a commitment from Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren.
Again, you need money to have success in the portal. Big money.
Kelly has made a commitment to help move LSU in that direction. We'll see what grows from the seed money he planted, but I'd be surprised if it does not result in some major investment from major LSU donors.