The LSU Tigers are in a very interesting spot under head coach Brian Kelly currently. Coming into the 2025 college football season, optimism and expectations have been at an all-time high under Kelly, and there were legitimate National Championship aspirations. Through six games, LSU still has all of its goals in front of them, but things aren’t going as smoothly as some anticipated. Most experts believed the Tiger offense was going to be exceptional, and that just hasn’t been the case so far. It has made this version of the LSU program seemingly vulnerable.

If coach Kelly’s team doesn’t have a strong end to the season, especially with how much the program invested in the roster, there is going to continue to be a large portion of the fanbase that have their doubts about the long-term outlook for this regime. Kelly is unquestionably a good coach, but is he good enough to get this team to a championship level? That is the question that has continued to be asked during his fourth year as head coach.

With that pressure continuing to mount, there will also be a level of speculation. There was an interesting conversation that was had on a recent episode of the Cover 3 Podcast, where the crew discussed the aftermath of the Penn State Nittany Lion program firing head coach James Franklin. CBS Sports college football writer Tom Fornelli had an interesting take on the situation and whether Franklin’s unemployment would cause some teams to pursue him.

Several programs were a part of that conversation, including the LSU Tigers.

“I had the hypothetical about Florida, Penn State a minute ago,” Fornelli said. “If you’re Lane Kiffin, does James Franklin being fired today and having his contract bought out, which means you don’t have to pay a buyout to hire him away from Penn State anymore, does this change the calculus at Florida? Does it change the calculus at Auburn? Does it change the calculus at a lot of other jobs who feel like they can make a run at James Franklin? 

“Like, if I’m Hugh Freeze or Billy Napier, I had my spine about now,” continued Fornelli. “LSU, I just feel like there’s a lot of jobs that were still kind of up in the air, and now having this guy on the market is going to impact a lot of decisions. Now, obviously, there will be feelers behind the scenes, but now that James Franklin is no longer the coach at Penn State, you can much more easily put those feelers out there and find out how interested he is in that gig. It was historically bad, but I don’t think that whoever takes over is going to have to dig it out of some trench. And what I mean by historically.”

While LSU was only mentioned briefly, Fornelli was clearly posing the question about whether the Tigers should have some level of interest in Franklin now that he is on the market. In this hypothetical reality, Franklin would be the next coach after Kelly, assuming a change comes sometime in the near future. As crazy as that hypothetical sounds, it becomes even more ludicrous when you think deeper about it. We often talk about coaches leaving for lateral jobs, but in this case, LSU would be pushing for a lateral coach (probably even a bit generous).

Why would LSU do that?

When you discuss Kelly, what is the big reason people have doubts about him? It is his team’s performance in the big games. While he is also a pretty unlikeable person and an inconsistent recruiter, that will always be the main topic of criticism. Kelly has gained a reputation as a good coach who just isn’t good enough to get teams over the top. There is a self-created ceiling that Kelly often creates on his teams.

While it is highly unlikely that Kelly changes his issues, why would switching to Franklin make any sense at all? Franklin has had the very same issues while with the Nittany Lion program, holding a 1-15 record against top-5 teams, and a 4-21 overall record against programs ranked inside the top 10. Franklin has been just as poor in those bigger games. You would just be swapping out Kelly for a younger model, but a very similar caliber of head coach.

This is far from an endorsement for Brian Kelly to be the long-term answer as the LSU head coach. LSU can, and should, aim for better. Franklin, however, isn’t better. He doesn’t fix any of your biggest problems. That would be making a move just to make a move, and that would be an incredibly irresponsible decision for the folks down in Baton Rouge.

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