Now that both Brian Kelly & Marcus Freeman have been introduced as coaches of LSU and Notre Dame, the next few years are going to be fascinating to watch.

Obviously press conferences don't make legacies and it will come down to who wins on Saturdays in the Fall, but the locker room video, his chops on the recruiting trail, the near universal excitement surrounding this hire, etc, has Notre Dame looking pretty exciting, if not down right likable nationally!  Compare that to LSU...the circumstances surrounding Kelly leaving his team during a playoff chase, the weird southern accent?  LSU just hired Notre Dame's all time winningest coach, and yet, the mood around Kelly seems to be more "meh", at best.  Will that matter on the recruiting trail? It certainly can't hurt that every media outlet considers Marcus Freeman to be an electric personality.

We all know the risks that come with Marcus Freeman. We all saw Kelly win more games at Notre Dame than...well..any other human ever.  With that said, I'm interested in what you guys think. Which program is more likely to enjoy more success in the next 5 years?  Because right now, Notre Dame feels forward thinking, innovative, back to being the "it" team and the program with "the guy" as coach. We're poised to go to the moon, while LSU seems stuck in the past.

For the sake of argument, I'll define success as making the CFP playoff, top 5 recruiting classes, more likely to see players win awards for performance, etc.

I do not see LSU making the CFP in the next 5 years. I see Notre Dame doing that at least twice

I think LSU will beat ND in recruiting classes some years, but I think Notre Dame will have better classes these first two years.

I think Kelly will realize how different LSU is very quickly. The last coach won a Title two years ago and got canned. One bad year and he is gone. I can see him being fired in about 3 years to be honest.

Meanwhile, I think Notre Dame will be competitive every week under Freeman, I think they will not play down to their opponents that occurred often under Kelly here. I dont know if Freeman wins a Title in 5 years, but I think he will play for one or two in the next 5 years.

Edited December 7, 20213 yr by NDhoosier

Kelly has no financial incentive to work harder at recruiting than he did at ND. He can go 0-120 over ten years and he will make $90+ million. Freeman wakes up at 5 am and starts his day. Does anyone think that Kelly will match that?

Freemans #1 priority for assistant coaches will be recruiting effectiveness. Kelly has never made that a priority for his assistants.

As a result, I am fairly confident that Freeman will out recruit Kelly even given LSU's in-state talent base. 

I also predict that the performance gap between ND and LSU will get wider each year that both coaches are at those schools.

4 hours ago, NDhoosier said:

I do not see LSU making the CFP in the next 5 years. I see Notre Dame doing that at least twice

I think LSU will beat ND in recruiting classes some years, but I think Notre Dame will have better classes these first two years.

It'll be interesting to see how things work out. I look at average player rating, not really the team rank.... 

As far as the next two years.... So far

2022 (ND/LSU) - 91.50 / 91.33 (LSU has a 5star QB)

2023 - 95.14 / 95.09

Pretty even, and LSU lost several kids... We're done for the most part of 2022, but LSU still has room. Too early really to guess about 2023. 

4 hours ago, NDhoosier said:

I think Kelly will realize how different LSU is very quickly. The last coach won a Title two years ago and got canned. One bad year and he is gone. I can see him being fired in about 3 years to be honest.

He likely doesn't care about fickleness. His contract is at minimum 90% guaranteed. That's 80+M dollars. I'm sure he'd be willing to get fired tomorrow and play golf for a few years lol... hell, sign me up for that deal. Only way it's not guaranteed is they fire him for cause, and I don't see BK doing anything egregious. One reason for bringing him in is his squeaky clean history while LSU is trying to get past the scandal... 

4 hours ago, NDhoosier said:

Meanwhile, I think Notre Dame will be competitive every week under Freeman, I think they will not play down to their opponents that occurred often under Kelly here. I dont know if Freeman wins a Title in 5 years, but I think he will play for one or two in the next 5 years.

We need an elite QB. That's how long it will take us. I'm confident in Freeman.

no i think coach kelly will do just fine at lsu he is definitely better than freeman. the players like me more and freeman looks silly in a suit. and i think brian will win probably like 6 titles he is a top tier coach in football

7 hours ago, DefinitelyNotCoachKelly said:

no i think coach kelly will do just fine at lsu he is definitely better than freeman. the players like me more and freeman looks silly in a suit. and i think brian will win probably like 6 titles he is a top tier coach in football

Welcome to DomerDomain!

8 hours ago, DefinitelyNotCoachKelly said:

no i think coach kelly will do just fine at lsu he is definitely better than freeman. the players like me more and freeman looks silly in a suit. and i think brian will win probably like 6 titles he is a top tier coach in football

lol, 2nd account alert! My guess is Elder06 🤣

10 hours ago, DefinitelyNotCoachKelly said:

no i think coach kelly will do just fine at lsu he is definitely better than freeman. the players like me more and freeman looks silly in a suit. and i think brian will win probably like 6 titles he is a top tier coach in football

Oh I see Kelly working hard at least for the first two years at recruiting. He’s going to try and prove a point. But I think he’ll go back to being relaxed after that. The main issue I see with him is he takes forever to try and build a program. It might come easier with LSU and recruiting. But I think he’s going to have some Weis years. Meaning, he’s going to swing big and run into some issues off the field with students. Does he discipline them?  How does he handle it?  More than likely he will, he’ll then lose some talent and likely depth and he’ll go back to trying g to rebuild using the “right kind of kid.”  Problem here as someone mentioned. LSU isn’t going to wait for him to get it rolling in year 12.