ESPN analyst reveals one college football firing that scared coaches

ESPN’s Chris Fowler said that LSU firing former head coach Ed Orgeron is a telling sign to his predecessor Brian Kelly, as well as any college football coach across the landscape to never get too comfortable.

LSU firing former head coach Ed Orgeron less than two years after winning a national title does not sit well with ESPN’s analyst Chris Fowler, who thinks Orgeron’s replacement Brian Kelly could be up against it down the line.

“A couple things happened … on the coaching front,” said Fowler on the Rich Eisen Show last week. “Orgeron getting fired is a chilling thing for coaches because two years ago, he [was] walking on water at LSU. Two years later, he’s out of a job. It can happen that fast, so I think people feel like, ‘Well, if they can do that to one of your own.’”

LSU fired Orgeron mid-season and eventually replaced him with long-time Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly a few weeks ago. Kelly is a proven winner everywhere he has been, but he is a total outsider to Louisiana. The Catholic connection might help in recruitment, but LSU firing one of their own in Orgeron means they could run Kelly out of town faster than you can say Joe Burrow.

Here is Fowler’s entire conversation with Rich Eisen from last week’s show.

Chris Fowler says LSU firing Ed Orgeron puts unrealistic pressure on Brian Kelly

Look. Kelly would have never left South Bend if he didn’t think he could handle the smoke. Though he rebuilt the Notre Dame program into a top-eight team annually, he saw the writing on the wall. Unless Notre Dame joined a Power Five conference, it was going to be next to impossible for the Golden Domers to win a national title. By going to LSU, Kelly enters the hardest division in football.

What gets lost in all this with Orgeron’s abrupt termination from LSU is we saw something similar happen not even a decade ago in the same SEC West. Gene Chizik saw his Auburn Tigers win a national title in 2010. Two years later, Auburn was atrocious and he got whacked. Orgeron’s firing was under different circumstances, but the Bayou Bengals were a .500 team since winning it all.

As for Kelly fitting in, or not, down on the bayou, the only thing that matters is if he wins. Winning is a cure-all for everything in sports, and Kelly knows how to do that at a very high level. Before promoting Orgeron from within, his two predecessors were national championship-winning coaches who weren’t from the Deep South in Nick Saban (West Virginia) and Les Miles (Ohio).

Once again, Kelly took the LSU job knowing the immense amount of pressure he will be under.

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