LSU hires Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame after a decade

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Another massive shake-up took place in the college football world Monday, with LSU finalizing a deal to hire Notre Dame's Brian Kelly as the school’s next head coach, according to multiple reports.

Ahead of the news, the Tigers were rumored to be in play for several coaches who inked elsewhere, including now-USC head coach Lincoln Riley, Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher and Florida's Billy Napier. This is the second massive coaching change of the week, after Riley jetted to Southern California on Sunday.

Kelly, who took over in South Bend in 2010 and became the school's all-time winningest coach, has made a pair of College Football Playoff appearances and has the 11-1 Fighting Irish in the mix again this season.

He is certainly a powerhouse hire for LSU. His 263 career wins are the third-most among active FBS head coaches, behind only the tallies of Alabama’s Nick Saban and North Carolina’s Mack Brown.

What's more, Kelly has had seven 10-win seasons at Notre Dame, including five straight double-digit-win seasons. He is the first Fighting Irish head coach to accomplish both feats.

He boasts a 113-40 career record at the helm of Notre Dame and has led the Fighting Irish to bowl-eligible status in 11 of his 12 seasons. Kelly was named Home Depot Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2018, AP Coach of the Year in 2018 and ACC Coach of the Year in 2020.

Expectations for Kelly will be high in Baton Rouge, where LSU's previous three head coaches each won a national title: Saban in 2003, Les Miles in 2007 and Ed Orgeron — who agreed to part ways with the Tigers after this season back in October — in 2019.

Remarkably, 10 of the 20 winningest programs in college football have had openings within the past two coaching cycles (ND, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, USC, LSU, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Florida and Washington).

Here's how the sports world reacted to the news.