There were several factors that contributed to Brian Kelly departing Notre Dame to become the head coach at LSU.
But one of them wasn’t Alabama.
While Kelly was at the podium at SEC Media Days, he was asked whether his losses to the Crimson Tide over the years factored in at all to his decision to take the Tigers job which Kelly reported that they didn’t have any influence.
“That wasn’t part of my decision-making,” Kelly said. “Those were really good teams. They both won the national championship. I thought we played Alabama better than anybody in that last playoff. Their talent was unbelievable on the offensive side of the ball that year. So that wasn’t like ‘I’m taking the LSU job, Alabama is so much better than us.’ That was not part of the process for me.
“It was timing. It was this place at LSU. It was the administration and the opportunity to bring this program back. It really had nothing t do with the Alabama game.”
Throughout his 12 years as the head coach of the Fighting Irish, Kelly and the Crimson Tide have met twice. The first meeting came in the 2013 national championship game where Nick Saban’s squad won 42-14 and the second in the 2021 College Football Playoff Semifinal where Alabama was victorious again winning 31-14.
Kelly, who became the LSU head coach back in November, now joins the SEC West which has been a division dominated by Alabama for over a decade.
Alabama and LSU will clash on Nov. 5 at Tiger Stadium which will start a new era in the rivalry.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
