Ranking the 5 college football coaches with the most to prove in 2024

2. Brian Kelly, LSU

When LSU poached Brian Kelly from Notre Dame two years ago, it was with the expectation that he could deliver a national championship to Baton Rouge. Two years in, and Kelly's solid but unspectacular record has been underwhelming, and at LSU, underwhelming doesn't cut it.

The Tigers cut ties with Ed Orgeron just two seasons after he led one of the best teams in college football history to the national title, and while there was more than just football that went into that decision, it still illustrates that the school's mindset is championship or bust.

Kelly has always been an odd cultural fit at LSU, but winning is the greatest panacea. With Nick Saban retiring and a potential power vacuum in the SEC West, though, the pressure to get LSU to the top is even more intense.

The SEC has been the dominant force in college football for nearly two decades, and now the conference is welcoming Oklahoma and Texas to its ranks. Football is a zero-sum game, though. One team wins, the other loses. It's impossible for all of these traditional powers to all be at the top at once, but if Kelly wants to avoid the same fate as Jimbo Fisher, he'll need to find a way to do it, and quick.