BRIAN KELLY

Head Football Coach

When Brian Kelly was hired away from Notre Dame in December of 2021, LSU announced at the time that “the search for LSU Football’s next championship head coach is over.”

The most accomplished hire in program history, Kelly wasted little time in making his impact felt, leading the Tigers to a 10-win season and the SEC Western Division title. Despite inheriting a roster with only 39 scholarship players remaining from the 2021 season, Kelly guided the Tigers to Top 10 wins over Ole Miss and Alabama along with road victories over Auburn, Florida and Arkansas in his first year with the Tigers.

LSU capped the 2022 season with a resounding 63-7 win over Purdue in the Citrus Bowl completing one of the biggest turnarounds in college football a year ago.

Kelly, who has more victories than any active coach in major college football, was named LSU’s 34th head football coach on December 1, taking over a program that has won four national championships.

Kelly’s 10 wins at LSU in 2022 ran his career win total to 294 in 32 years as a head coach and it marked the 11th time he led a team to 10 or more wins in a season at the FBS level. Overall, Kelly has had teams reach doublefigure wins 17 times with his teams winning nine games on five other occasions. His coaching career includes 13 seasons at Grand Valley State, three at Central Michigan, four at Cincinnati, 12 at Notre Dame and one at LSU.

His overall mark of 294-101-2 puts him ahead of

Alabama’s Nick Saban (285) and North Carolina’s Mack Brown (268) on the list of most victories by an active FBS head coach. Only twice during Kelly’s 32-year coaching career has he had a team finish below .500.

Kelly is also one of only five active FBS coaches who have guided their programs to multiple undefeated regular seasons since 2009 and he’s led teams to one berth in the BCS National Championship Game and to a pair of College Football Playoff appearances. Overall, his teams have appeared in bowl games 14 times.

Prior to taking over at LSU in 2022, Kelly spent 12 years as the head coach at Notre Dame where he became the school’s winningest coach with 113 victories, moving past legendary Knute Rockne for the top spot on the list. Kelly left Notre Dame with a 113-40 overall mark and his teams averaged 10 wins a season over his last five years –54-9 during that span - with Irish.

A native of Everett, Mass., Kelly was a four-year letterwinner at linebacker and two-time team captain at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass. He graduated from Assumption in 1983 with a degree in political science.

Kelly and his wife Paqui have three children – Patrick, Grace and Kenzel. The Kellys are active in community outreach and have established the Kelly Cares Foundation which has donated nearly $8 million to support causes related to the fight against breast cancer since its founding in 2008.