LSU has fired Brian Kelly as their head football coach. At the time of Kelly's termination, the LSU Tigers were 34-14 overall with Kelly at the helm of the program. Here is a look at the LSU Tigers football program since 2008 (the first year that in which I have data for the model) and partially covers Les Miles (2008-2016), Ed Orgeron (2017-2021) and Brian Kelly (2022-2025*). After the figure below is a more detailed look at the LSU Tigers football program during head coach Kelly's tenure based on the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model using data provided by www.cfbstats.com. (The vertical school color bars represent seasons where head coaches changed).
Brian Kelly [2022-2025*]
2022
The Tigers were 9-3 at the end of the regular season and played in the SEC Conference championship game where they were defeated by #1 ranked Georgia by a score of (30-50). LSU was bowl eligible,
where they were defeated by #93 ranked Purdue by a score of (63-7)
to finish at 10-4 overall. The Tigers played
against a “tougher” strength
of schedule (SOS), meaning that their SOS was between one and two
standard deviations lower than the "leagues" average SOS for that
season. LSU's
best regular season win was against #4 ranked Alabama by a score of
(32-31) and their worst regular
season loss was to #54 ranked Texas A&M by a
score of (23-38). LSU was the #23 ranked team overall, with the #19 ranked
offense and the #53 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.
2023
The Tigers finished
the regular season at 9-3 making them bowl eligible, where they defeated #54 ranked Wisconsin by a score of (35-31) to finish the season at 10-3 overall. The Tigers played
against an “average” strength
of schedule (SOS). LSU's
best regular season win
was against #21 ranked Missouri by a
score of (49-39) and their worst regular season loss was to #24 ranked Mississippi by a
score of (49-55). LSU was the #12 ranked team overall, with the #3 ranked
offense and the #80 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.
2024
The Tigers finished
the regular season at 8-4 making them bowl eligible, and defeated
#42 ranked Baylor by a score of (44-31) to finish the season
overall at 9-4. The Tigers played
against a “tougher” strength
of schedule (SOS). LSU's
best regular season win
was against #4 ranked Mississippi by a
score of (29-26) and their worst regular season loss was to #56 ranked Southern California by a
score of (20-27). LSU was the #62 ranked team overall, with the #52 ranked
offense and the #76 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.
2025*
The Tigers were 5-3 at the time of Kelly's firing. The Tigers played
against an “average” strength
of schedule (SOS) to this point in the season. At the time, LSU's
best win was against currently ranked #62 South Carolina by a score of (20-10) and their worst regular
season loss was to currently ranked #38 Mississippi by a
score of (19-24). At the time of Kelly's firing, LSU was the #56 ranked team overall, with the #66 ranked
offense and the #45 ranked defense using the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model from the data provided from www.cfbstats.com.
2025 FBS Head Coach Changes