Brian Kelly’s TikTok dancing and adoption of a serious work-in-progress southern accent has not impressed the college football world at large, but the new LSU coach has impressed a group far more important: local high school coaches.
The Tigers may have one of the biggest built-in home state advantages of any program. Louisiana is one of the sport’s biggest hotbeds of talent, and LSU is the only Power Five program to reside there. Kelly’s three predecessors—Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron—all used that local talent to win national titles.
One influential high school coach, Nelson Stewart of Isidore Newman in New Orleans, says he has been incredibly impressed by Kelly. Stewart’s team is led by the biggest name in high school recruiting right now, quarterback Arch Manning, and he believes Kelly has gotten off to a great start building a proverbial wall around the state.
