LSU should want former coach Brian Kelly to find another job, since any money he makes elsewhere will reduce what the school owes him as a buyout. Kelly claims that LSU’s foot-dragging is keeping him from getting hired.

Via ESPN.com, Kelly’s lawyers recently sent a letter to LSU complaining that the failure to formally terminate Kelly has “made it nearly impossible” for him to find another job.

“As you know, there is absolutely no basis to LSU’s contrived positions that Coach Kelly was not terminated or that cause existed for such termination,” Kelly’s lawyers wrote in the letter obtained by ESPN.com. “LSU’s conduct, including its failure to confirm that Coach Kelly was terminated without cause and its unsupported allegations of misconduct on the part of Coach Kelly, has made it nearly impossible for Coach Kelly to secure other football-related employment. . . . LSU’s conduct continues to harm Coach Kelly, particularly during this critical hiring period.”

It appears that LSU is slow-playing the situation in the hopes that Kelly will accept a reduced buyout in order to get his freedom. At some point, however, LSU needs to do something. He’s no longer coaching the team. He’s essentially been fired. They’ve reportedly offered him far less than what he’s owed. The urgency to shake free from LSU could, in theory, compel him to blink.

He’s not blinking. Kelly has already filed a lawsuit, seeking a judicial declaration that he has been fired without cause.

If LSU has reason to fire Kelly with cause, it should. If it doesn’t, it should fire him without cause. They’ve obviously fired him. It seems even more obvious that they’re playing games in the hopes of minimizing what they owe him under the contract they gave him.

Whatever you may think about Kelly, LSU seems to be sticking it to him. Whoever takes the job in Baton Rouge next shouldn’t be surprised if, in time, they do it to him, too.