Nick Saban captured his first career national title while coaching LSU in 2003. His successor, Les Miles, did the same four years later. After Miles’s lengthy run with the Tigers, his former assistant and interim-turned-full-time coach Ed Orgeron fielded perhaps the greatest team in school history and bulldozed college football en route to the 2019 championship. After Orgeron’s tenure burned out, the program tabbed former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, who failed to do what his three predecessors did at LSU, despite the school’s significant resources.
Kelly was fired Sunday, after a blowout loss to his former assistant Mike Elko and Texas A&M, leaving the program on the hook for his $53-plus million buyout (before offsets from any new job that Kelly lands; Kelly has a duty to mitigate clause in his deal requiring him to seek new employment).
