LSU football coach Brian Kelly gets ‘elite’ take from Greg McElroy

Since Nick Saban left the LSU football program after the 2004 season to take over as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, the belief was that powerhouse that Saban had built down in Baton Rouge would revert back to mediocrity. After all, when Saban led LSU to a National Title in 2003, it was the program’s first championship since 1958. But unexpectedly, following Saban’s departure, LSU’s stature within the NCAA has only grown since he left town.

Under their next three head coaches — Les Miles, Ed Orgeron, and Brian Kelly — the Tigers have amassed a 185-62 record, a mark which has only been topped by the following six programs since 2005: Ohio State, Alabama, Boise State, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Clemson. Additionally, both Les Miles and Ed Orgeron led the Tigers to another National Championship season, the first coming in 2007 under Miles, and the second in 2019 with arguably the most loaded college football team of the 21st century.

But despite the hardware, former Alabama quarterback and current ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy believes that Les Miles and Ed Orgeron don’t deserve the distinction of “elite” college football coaches. He does however feel as though that description fits Brian Kelly, who has spent the last three seasons coaching at LSU and working on his cajun accent.

“I think Les Miles is a solid coach, I don’t think he’s elite. I think Ed Orgeron is a solid coach, I don’t think he’s elite. I think Brian Kelly is elite,” Greg McElroy said on the Always College Football show. “That’s why I think the percentage chance that he will win a national championship at LSU is 50%. Now remember, people are going to hear that they’re going to say ‘50%, I mean, that seems a little low, or perhaps seems a little high.’ Winning a national championship is outrageously difficult. Outrageously difficult.”

McElroy would know. While at Alabama, Greg McElroy quarterbacked a stacked Crimson Tide squad to the 2009 National Title under Nick Saban, who took over in Tuscaloosa in 2007. Two years later, Alabama would defeat Les Miles and the LSU Tigers for their second championship under Saban, and one season after that, the Tide would repeat as BCS champs in dominant fashion with a 42-14 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who were coached at the time by Brian Kelly.