ND’s Kelly LSU’s Sloppy Second Not Its “Reinsdorf”

ND’s Brian Kelly confirmed on Twitter he is LSU’s new football coach ending Irish fans’ hope he was pulling a “Reinsdorf,” so named after the White Sox owner who tricked Illinois into subsidizing a new stadium in Chicago by “pledging” to move his team to Tampa. But, was this latest stunning coaching move inevitable?

Former Irish QB Brady Quinn & tv commentator had suggested to CBS Sports that early reports of a 60-yr-old Kelly’s move to a flagging LSU football program after having signed a lucrative contract extension with ND didn’t make sense, UNLESS the rumors are true about Kelly being miffed over his school’s having dragged its heels on building him a new practice facility. Sounds petty, though, esp. since ND was paying him around $7M a year ... without being able to win the storied school's first national title since 1988 & that he was hired to bring home. Sure, Quinn noted, LSU may have offered $95M over 10 years to lure Kelly after new-USC head coach Lincoln Riley blew them off. But is Kelly so naïve as to not realize he’d be forever stamped as LSU Football’s “sloppy second” by taking its job offer? Apparently, he doesn’t care with an LSU football program famous for its lock on the state’s talent-rich, ragin’ cagin’ high school talent. (Ask Alabama's Nick Saban who won a title at LSU before moving on to still more down South. He knows.)

Maybe the real question is “how hard did ND try to KEEP Kelly, the coach of two infamous play-off slaughters, in South Bend?” Note, in the 1988 Reinsdorf scenario the perennial losing White Sox had a brand new stadium waiting for them in Tampa & the team was hours away from sealing the deal when then-Illinois Gov James Thompson was incentivized enough to use that fact on behalf of his Northwestern U pal to browbeat the Illinois General Assembly during an all night session into voting for a sweet stadium deal of its own. A World Series ring would follow. Well, the White Sox are still in Chicago. But, Kelly turned out to be no Reinsdorf and ND proved to be no Big Jim Thompson able to keep Kelly in South Bend at the 11th hour. Because a national championship under his leadership wasn't going to happen?

Davd Soul