College Gameday Reacts to LSU Football Hire of Brian Kelly

National college football analysts think Kelly is a great hire for LSU, raise a few concerns

This week has provided many mixed emotions about LSU's hire of Brian Kelly as the next leader of the football program. Some have raised concerns about how Kelly, who spent most of his career up north, would fit the culture of Baton Rouge. 

But looking at the hire from a purely results based standpoint, there wasn't a much better option for the Tigers earlier this week when news broke of the decision. On Saturday, the College Gameday crew of ESPN reacted to the hire quite positively. 

"LSU hired a great football coach," Kirk Herbstreit said. "He's gonna hire a great staff and LSU is gonna go out and recruit and look out. They're going to become the juggernaut once again in the SEC West. That's the reality of where we are."

Herbstreit did raise some concern in how the process was handled on Kelly's end but fully believes LSU will be back to competing at the top of the SEC West sooner than later. Another concern that Desmond Howard brought up was how Kelly would adjust to recruiting in the SEC. 

Now that he has the selling points of top notch resources, facilities and the LSU brand, Howard brought up the fact that Kelly will now have to prove himself to win some of those recruiting battles against the likes of Nick Saban, Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher now that he's in Baton Rouge. 

"LSU is a great job and one of the best in the country and Brian Kelly is a fantastic coach," Howard said. "That part fits but I was worried about the cultural fit. I wasn't sure if he would fit their culture. Baton Rouge, New Orleans is one of the most unique places in the world and they are not going to change. There's an opportunity for him to compete against those teams."

David Pollack, a former player at Georgia and longtime analyst for College Gameday is also bullish on the hire of Kelly, praising his decision for wanting to join the best of the best in the SEC.

"He went because he wanted to play against these teams that he's got equal talent with. He's played at Notre Dame against Alabama, he's played against these great teams but he's never had equal talent," David Pollack said. "Brian Kelly said 'Listen I want to go somewhere that'll provide me the opportunity to win a championship.' He wanted to be in this arena."

The national perspective around Kelly and LSU has been overwhelmingly positive and as the next steps heat up in his era with the Tigers, much more will come to light about what this program will look like under Kelly.