How Brian Kelly Is Using AI to Prepare for His Next College Football Coaching Job

Kelly is turning to previously-unorthodox methods to prepare for any head coaching interviews that come down the pipeline.

Kelly is currently a free agent on the college football coaching market. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

College football coach Brian Kelly, currently a coaching free agent, is embracing AI as a tool to aid his job search.

During an appearance on the Sports Seriously podcast with USA Today's John Brice and Blake Toppmeyer, Kelly, citing the ever-changing landscape of college football, shared that he's been utilizing AI tools such as Claude and ChatGPT to aid him in preparation for questions he may face from an athletic director in a potential interview.

“Every day, I’m trying to do my due diligence using Claude and AI, asking questions to build some of those answers that I think can be helpful for me as I get in front of an athletic director,” Kelly said.

If this sounded like a bit of an unconventional thing for a college football coach to bring up, it sounded that way to the hosts as well, as Brice later jokingly asked Kelly if he was going to use Claude to help formulate a gameplan.

But the former Notre Dame and LSU coach took the question as an opportunity to further expand upon his extensive usage of AI, as well as where he believes it will fit into the sport's future timeline.

“Claude, as you know, is probably a little bit better in predicting some of the things outside the lines, whereas ChatGPT is much more driven right down the center,” Kelly said. “But there’s some interesting things that I’ve laid down relative to recruiting, profiling, transfer portal, there’s a lot of work you can do. And I think it’s going to have to be part of the next iteration in coaching. You’re going to have to utilize those tools.

“Now, look, it’s not going to take over everything. Balls and strikes are here to stay in Major League Baseball. But it’s not taking over the game, I think it’s enhancing it. And I think AI, used the right way, and understanding how to use it, can enhance the experience for everybody.”

There's a saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. And while the 64-year-old Kelly may not fit the typical definiton of an older person, he's been in the game long enough to develop traditional methods for doing things. That he's turning to AI to aid the pursuit of his next head coaching job feels somewhat jarring, but perhaps it's a sign that Kelly is leaving no stone unturned professionally after the disappointing end to his LSU tenure.

Brian Kelly's LSU tenure ends with firing, court squabbles over buyout

Brian Kelly was fired during his fourth season at LSU after going 34–14. | SCOTT CLAUSE / USATODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Kelly arrived at Baton Rouge in November 2021 to great fanfare, given the success he had enjoyed at Notre Dame. But despite benefiting from the resources of an SEC school, Kelly, who went 34–14 in three-plus seasons with the Tigers, underachieved, failing to reach the College Football Playoff in any of his seasons at the helm. While Kelly did author two double-digit win seasons and coached Jayden Daniels to a Heisman Trophy in 2023, it was not enough to ultimately save his job.

Kelly became a victim of politics—literally—when Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, who had elected six members of the school's Board of Supervisors, expressed his displeasure with the football team’s state of affairs following a 49–25 loss to Texas A&M during which Kelly was booed by the fans at Tiger Stadium.

Just days later, the university moved to fire Kelly, a decision that Landry reportedly held significant influence over, according to Yahoo Sports. Kelly and the university then squabbled over the $54 million buyout he was due to be paid, with the Tigers reportedly offering him two settlements that were roughly half of the amount of the buyout.

Kelly's lawyers then filed a lawsuit in an effort to obtain the full amount he was owed, a court venture the Kelly side eventually won, with the catch being that Kelly, who was formally fired without cause in November, had to make “good-faith, reasonable and sustained efforts to obtain” employment and share documentation of his job search with the university.

Prior to his LSU tenure, Kelly spent 12 years at Notre Dame and has been a college football coach for 22 seasons, compiling a 200–76 overall record. Kelly has been open about his desire to coach again, including during the podcast segment with USA Today.

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