Penn State’s James Franklin has been fired. Arkansas’ Sam Pittman has been fired. UCLA’s DeShaun Foster has been fired. Auburn, Florida, and Wisconsin are all expected to seek new leadership in the coming weeks and months. Nebraska, Ole Miss, Indiana, Memphis, and USF could be looking for new head coaches, too, if their current leaders leave for another job.
The fallout from all this expected turnover will send ripples across the college football landscape at every level.
A fascinating deep dive by USA Today’s Blake Toppmeyer explores this fallout, with one main theme: everyone is about to get a lot more expensive.
That particularly applies to LSU football head coach Brian Kelly, who has recently been rumored to be in consideration for the job at Penn State. Whether Kelly is truly contemplating the move isn’t the main point; what matters more are the implications of seeing Kelly on these lists.
As Toppmeyer stated in his article, “Rumors equal raises.” Kelly is currently the eighth-highest-paid coach in college football, earning $10,175,000 per year. If he and the Tigers finish the 2025 season on a high note, he’ll certainly have a case for why that number should increase, especially if the upcoming hires reset the coaching market as many anticipate.
The question is this: what defines a “strong” finish? Given the talent on LSU’s roster this season, can ending the year in the Pop-Tarts Bowl truly be considered a success? Can the team continue to listen to Kelly talk about how the roster is oh-so-close again, while giving him a raise that makes him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country?
But at the same time, the grass isn’t always greener. Even if the team can’t get over the hump, it’s easy to make the case for why there’s still more potential to be unlocked under Kelly, and that nearly any other available hire would be a lateral move, or worse.
Again, we’re only entering Week 7 of the college football season. There’s still plenty of football left to be played, and things could go in any direction as the year unfolds. However, if Kelly wants to be paid the same as the top echelon of coaches, LSU needs to perform like a top echelon team. Until then, the Tigers remain stuck in a gray area between potential and plateau, and are paying a premium to be there.
This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: What the coaching carousel means for LSU football and Brian Kelly
