Shannon Sharpe Takes a Shot at LSU Football's Brian Kelly Following Notre Dame Win

LSU head coach Brian Kelly remains a hot topic of conversation following his old program, Notre Dame, punching its ticket to the National Championship on Thursday night.

Current Fighting Irish shot-caller Marcus Freeman will now take the field in the title game in his third season at the helm of the Notre Dame program.

For the young head coach, he's won over the fanbase and multiple national media analysts as he carves out a role as one of the top decision-makers in college football.

But with his success, we've seen Kelly remain in headlines with many comparing him to Freeman after he departed Notre Dame for LSU in 2022.

ESPN's Shannon Sharpe hopped on his podcast with Chad Ochocinco "Nightcap" where he discussed the Freeman versus Kellt debate.

"You know what I liked the best. Brian Kelly is about to catch a stray," Sharpe said. "He always does this. He always gets his team there and then leaves in the middle. He did this with Cincinnati, he took the Notre Dame job. He did Notre Dame, he ended up taking the LSU job. I would like to see them win it just for that fact."

Sharpe then continued by saying Freeman has done something that Kelly couldn't do.

"Yeah Brian Kelly, he did something you couldn't do. Yeah, I'm petty like that. I like Marcus Freeman, he got the job. I think the president was like, ... 'This is our guy.' There wasn't no hullabaloo, making a guy jump through hoops. He liked what he saw, he saw him on campus every day."

Kelly led the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to the 2012 National Championship as the head coach of the program, but suffered a loss to Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide by a wide margin.

It's clear Freeman is the "likable" coach in South Bend. He's won over the fanbase and more during his three-year stint with the Fighting Irish.

A true players-coach, the program has bought into what he is selling almost immediately and Sharpe doubled down on that during his podcast episode.

"I really like Marcus Freeman. I've never met the man, but I'm watching him on the sideline. I watch his mannerisms. ... I'm like yeah, 18-year-old Shannon Sharpe could definitely play for him. I love the passion, I love what he stands for and how his players really really like him."

Sharpe, an NFL Hall of Famer, understands the elements it takes for a coach to be successful and is riding with Freeman for the long haul.

But he isn't the only national media personality critiquing Kelly.

Finebaum's Take:

SEC Network's Paul Finebaum chimed in during an appearance on "Get Up!" early Friday morning where he discussed LSU's shot-caller.

The first point of emphasis was congratulating Freeman and Co. for knocking off a pair of talented teams throughout their College Football Playoff run.

“Well, I’m going to talk about coach here as well and that’s Marcus Freeman. Just an extraordinary job of bringing them back,” Finebaum said. “I sat here, I was the first one to write them off and say that they’re done. So let me compliment Marcus Freeman.”

But focus quickly shifted to Kelly and his reasoning behind leaving Notre Dame in 2022. Finebaum dove into his thoughts on the past.

“Let me also go back three years to another point in time. Notre Dame hasn’t been in a national championship game since the ’12 season. That’s when Brian Kelly – yes, Brian Kelly – lost by 28 points to Alabama in Miami,” Finebaum said.

“I just couldn’t help but think that Brian Kelly, three years ago, said, ‘I’m leaving Notre Dame because I want to win a national championship and the only place I can do that is LSU!’. And here is Marcus Freeman, who was his assistant briefly, and he’s now brought this team back and so much credit to him and amazing staff. I’ll let my friends here talk about the players that made the difference but it was an amazing thing to watch.”

Freeman has now punched his ticket to the National Championship Game, as did Kelly during his tenure with the Fighting Irish.

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