7 LSU head coach candidates to replace Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly is out at LSU.

Days after the Tigers were blown out by Texas A&M to fall to 5-3 on the season — and 2-3 in the SEC — LSU parted ways with the embattled head coach. Kelly’s tenure in Baton Rouge finished with a 34-10 record overall, but just a 19-10 record in SEC play.

Here are some coaches to watch as LSU starts thinking about a new head coach.

Let’s start with the biggest name on the list.

Lane Kiffin secured perhaps the biggest win of his tenure in Oxford this past weekend, as Mississippi went into Norman and knocked off the Sooners in a matchup of teams ranked inside the Top 15. The game was pivotal for both teams’ hopes of the College Football Playoffs, and now Mississippi has an inside track on a berth, sitting at 7-1.

Kiffin was already linked to a job ahead of that game -- the open spot at Florida -- and was forced to address that speculation with his team ahead of the Oklahoma game. Now with the LSU job open, that calculus may have changed.

Especially when one of the biggest voices in SEC land is backing such a move.

Paul Finebaum.

“I’ll just make it simple, LSU is a better job than Florida. Florida has been devalued. I talked to (Tim) Tebow about that yesterday, and most of what you talk about with Florida is in the past. I mean, they have fired four straight coaches,” Finebaum said Sunday morning on The Matt Barrie Show podcast.

“And LSU is a lot different than that. Yeah, they fire a few coaches now and then, but they usually pay it off, and they’re capable of doing that. It’s just a completely different world. Kiffin’s quirky, and would he fit LSU? Probably would. He maybe fits that mindset a little better. Florida is a collection of a lot of different interests and politics, where LSU, if you win, you’re going to be OK at LSU.”

After highlighting Mississippi’s big win over Oklahoma, Finebaum went on to outline how a move to Baton Rouge could work.

“Listen, winning at Oklahoma is a big deal. … That’s one of the biggest wins he’s had. Now last year at home against Georgia probably meant a little more and then he threw it away. (But Kiffin is) in really good shape. I think he’s in the Playoff now, it’s just a matter of how he negotiates the rest of the season,” Finebaum said.

“And … not to start more speculation, but Lane Kiffin to LSU, that resonates equal or even more than the (Florida opening). The good news for Ole Miss fans, (in addition to) the fact that Ole Miss is in the Playoff, but the portal window is late this year, which makes it palatable that you can get two games in before the window opens, and that’s a big, big deal.”

Every time a job becomes available, Matt Campbell is on the list of options.

That was the case when James Franklin was fired at Penn State, and it is the case again with Kelly’s dismissal at LSU. After turning Toledo into a better program, Campbell made the move to Ames and turned the Cyclones from a team that went 8-28 in the three years before his arrival to a perennial contender in the Big 12.

At some point, Campbell is going to jump at a big opportunity, and this might be the perfect time for him to make such a move.

After taking over at Georgia Tech midway through the 2022 season, Brent Key has delivered back-to-back bowl campaigns for the Yellow Jackets.

Now, Georgia Tech is 8-0 on the season and currently ranked eighth in the latest AP Poll. That matches their highest ranking since the end of the 2014 season, when they finished the year ranked No. 8.

The Yellow Jackets have just one team left on their schedule that is currently ranked -- their annual clash with Georgia to close out the regular season -- and they are in position for a spot in the ACC title game.

That could get Key a look for several jobs, given how he has turned around this program since taking over. He also has some SEC coaching experience, as he spent three years in Tuscaloosa as an offensive line coach for the Crimson Tide. During that stretch, Alabama won a national championship.

For what feels like years, Joe Brady has been listed as a future head coach.

While he has yet to earn such a promotion, perhaps a return to Baton Rouge is where it happens. Brady was the passing game coordinator for the Tigers when LSU made its run to the national championship in 2019, helping oversee an offense that averaged more than 48 points with Joe Burrow running the show. Instead of staying in the college ranks, Brady made the leap to the NFL and is currently the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills.

Would LSU turn the program over to a first-time head coach? That might be a stretch, but Brady is a candidate to watch.

One of the hotter names in the collegiate coaching ranks is Jon Sumrall, who has gone 38-10 at both Troy and Tulane. In his first year at Troy, he led the Trojans to a 12-2 record, with one of those losses coming against a talented Mississippi team. He led Troy to an 11-3 record the following season, losing to a Kansas State team that was ranked No. 15 at the time, and Duke in a bowl game.

Those two seasons earned Sumrall a new job, as he took over at Tulane. The Green Wave went 9-5 in its first year on campus, securing a bowl bid, and is off to a 6-1 start this year.

Sumrall also has an SEC stint on his resume, as he coached linebackers at both Mississippi and his alma mater, Kentucky, and spent a year with the Wildcats as the co-defensive coordinator.

Hired to replace Barry Odom ahead of the 2020 season, Eli Drinkwitz has turned the Tigers into a much better program since he arrived on campus. The Tigers finished with an 11-2 record during the 2023 season -- earning Drinkwitz SEC Coach of the Year Honors -- and he is on pace for a third consecutive season with double-digit victories.

Over his time in Columbia, Drinkwitz has posted a 44-26 record.

Drinkwitz has consistently dismissed reports about a move to a new job as “noise.” However, a chance to take over in Baton Rouge might be tough to turn down.

Rhett Lashlee is in a very good situation at SMU.

But he could land in an even better one at LSU.

In Dallas, Lashlee is at the helm of a program backed by passionate boosters, who are helping to turn the Mustangs into a perennial contender. After going 7-6 in his first year on campus, SMU finished with 11 wins in each of the next two years, earning a spot in the College Football Playoff a year ago.

Before he arrived on campus, SMU had just one double-digit win season from 1984 through 2022.