College Football HQ

Paul Finebaum labels newly unemployed college football coach as 'arrogant'

See which still unemployed college football coach received a harsh critique from Paul Finebaum.
Ryan Young|
SEC Nation analyst Paul Finebaum looks on prior to the game between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Missouri Tigers at Kyle Field.
SEC Nation analyst Paul Finebaum looks on prior to the game between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Missouri Tigers at Kyle Field. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

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LSU Tigers

It's no surprise that opinionated college football personality Paul Finebaum had some pointed responses when asked to describe certain college football coaches with just one word.

But his description for former LSU and Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was particularly interesting.

"Arrogant," Finebaum said.

In the spirit of the bit, he didn't expound on the label, and many college football fans will surely nod at that description for the fired former Tigers coach. But what makes it interesting in this case is that Finebaum had Kelly as a weekly guest on Mondays during the football season and was usually very deferential to the coach for taking the time to join him.

"Coach, always appreciate you coming on, on Monday," Finebaum said to close out Kelly's last weekly appearance before he was fired on Oct. 26.

That said, he's not wrong.

There's a reason there has been almost zero buzz around Kelly's name for any job opening this cycle, despite his status as the winningest active coach in college football with an official record of 297-109-2 across his tenures at Division II Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU, with 21 more wins officially vacated from his Notre Dame record.

Kelly stunned the college football world when he left Notre Dame after 12 seasons and five straight double-digit-win seasons, including 11-1 in his final year there in 2021, for LSU while saying publicly that he wanted "to be in an environment where I have the resources to win a national championship."

Never mind that Kelly had led Notre Dame to the national championship game after the 2012 season, losing to Alabama, and that, without him, the Fighting Irish reached the national championship game last year (losing to Ohio State).

He drew further ire when he said he was rooting for the Irish in that title game last year while noting that he had recruited many of the players involved.

Of course, Kelly's LSU tenure seemed misfit almost from the start when he slipped into a fake southern accent during his introductory press conference.

Then there was the awkward video of Kelly showing off his dance moves with a recruit ...

But the biggest problem was that Kelly simply didn't win enough in Baton Rouge. He never reached a College Football Playoff with the Tigers, never finished higher than No. 12 in the final rankings, dipped to 9-4 last year and then 5-3 this season before he was fired.

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Ryan Young
RYAN YOUNG

Ryan Young joins CFB HQ On SI after 15 years as a college football beat writer, including the last seven years in Los Angeles covering the USC Trojans for Rivals. He previously covered Florida and Coastal Carolina after four years at the Kansas City Star. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland.

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