In a seven-month span, LSU hired Kim Mulkey in women's basketball, Jay Johnson in baseball and stole Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame. The first two won national titles in Year 2. Now it's Kelly's turn.
"Hey, I get it," Kelly said."People may talk about pressure to win a national title when you look at what Kim did and what Jay did in their second seasons. But I look at it as more of that's what you're supposed to do at LSU. We're all in this together, and the standard has been set."
He returned to LSU in 2019 and has gone 3-for-3 in hiring Mulkey, who won three NCAA titles coaching at Baylor; Johnson, who led Arizona to a Pac-12 title and CWS appearance in 2021; and Kelly, who won 10 or more games in six of his last seven seasons at Notre Dame."Sometimes, you hit it just right, and the timing is just right. There is no algorithm to it," Woodward said.
As the season wound down, three marquee jobs already were open -- LSU, USC and Florida. Competition for filling them would be fierce and rumors were flying. Because of his friendship with Woodward and a previous stint at LSU as Saban's offensive coordinator, Fisher was the hot name initially at LSU and he was a serious target. But with a new contract extension at Texas A&M, Fisher wasn't going anywhere.
Kelly said he could have been involved with the USC and Florida jobs, and while at Notre Dame, he passed on opportunities at both Tennessee and Texas, among others. Prior to Kelly's hiring at LSU, there were reports that Lincoln Riley was also seriously in play. But sources told ESPN that Woodward never considered Riley for the job.
"We didn't have to talk long. I didn't need to come in and look around. All I said was, 'Pay me what I'm making at Baylor, take care of my assistant coaches and I'm ready to come back home.'" "So Scott has put together quite an athletic program with the people he's hired," Mulkey said, adding that when it comes to luring top coaches away from established programs,"obviously, there's no secret -- you've got to start by talking about money. But there's also the SEC; particularly in football, the SEC sells itself."
"That second time, we played an outstanding Alabama team as well as anybody played them that year," Kelly said."My take after the game was, 'Yeah, we lost again, but let's keep it in perspective. That team killed everybody.'
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