LSU hires former Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly

By Travis Caldwell, CNN

Louisiana State University announced Tuesday morning Brian Kelly has been hired as the school’s head football coach. Kelly will be introduced on Wednesday.

Kelly — Notre Dame’s head coach since the 2010 season — will replace current LSU head coach Ed Orgeron. LSU announced October 17 the school and Orgeron will be parting ways when the 2021 season concludes.

Under Orgeron, LSU won the national title in the 2019-20 season but has struggled since. The Tigers are 6-6 this season, including 3-5 in Southeastern Conference play. In 2020, a season impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, LSU went 5-5.

Notre Dame is 11-1 this season — with its lone loss to the University of Cincinnati — and still potentially could reach the four-team College Football Playoff. The Fighting Irish are currently ranked No. 6. The latest College Football Playoff ranking will be released Tuesday.

Notre Dame has had a sustained run of success with at least 10 wins in each season since 2017. Notre Dame is only one of five programs to have qualified multiple times for the College Football Playoff since the format’s inception in the 2014-15 season, along with Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma.

According to Notre Dame, Kelly has more seasons with 10-plus wins than any other head coach in the school’s history. September 25, with a win against the University of Wisconsin, Kelly passed Knute Rockne to become the all-time leader in program history in career wins at Notre Dame.

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CNN’s Jill Martin and David Close contributed to this report.