For 15 years of his coaching career, Brian Kelly roamed the sidelines at two of the highest-profile programs in college football. He became the winningest coach in Notre Dame history while coaching the Fighting Irish from 2010-21 and spent more than three years as the head coach at LSU from 2022-25.

The two jobs brought different types of pressure, though, Kelly told USA Today. He considered the work at Notre Dame to be a build back toward national relevance while at LSU, the goal was to win a national championship quickly.

When Kelly took over at Notre Dame, the Irish were coming off a 6-6 season under Charlie Weis, which included four straight losses to end the year. The program had just two Top-15 finishes in the final AP poll since Lou Holtz’s departure in 1996. That’s why Kelly said his top goal was to restore Notre Dame to national prominence, which different from the immediate quest to win a title at LSU once he took over in 2022.

“They were different circumstances,” Kelly told John Brice and Blake Toppmeyer. “If you remember, when I took the Notre Dame job, they had just lost to [Stanford] and UConn. They had wooden bleachers, they had no scoreboard, they had no infrastructure. And I say that in due respect of the job there was going back to being relevant as a football program and building infrastructure, facilities. When I got on that campus, that’s what I needed to do. When I got on the campus at LSU, it was [to] win the national championship right away. There were a lot of things. We had 36 scholarship players when I got there. So there was a lot more digging and a lot more work to get to that level.

“They didn’t say after 3.5 years at Notre Dame, ‘If you don’t win the national championship, you’re out.’ Now, we played for it. We weren’t ready to win one, as we all know. But they were different. … They have different perspectives.”

Brian Kelly ‘proud of the work’ done at Notre Dame

All told, Brian Kelly amassed a 113-40 overall record during his time at Notre Dame, which moved him past Knute Rockne for the most wins in program history. However, 21 of those wins were vacated by the NCAA after an investigation. The Fighting Irish appeared in the national championship in 2012 – Kelly’s third season – and made two College Football Playoff appearances, as well.

Kelly said he’s “proud” of the work at Notre Dame to put the Irish back in the national spotlight. Now, Marcus Freeman is continuing to build it and took the Irish to the national title game in 2024.

“Notre Dame was more about building it and a consistent winner and becoming relevant again,” Kelly said. “Now, Marcus is taking that and moving it to another level. That’s how you do this in the world and Fortune 500 companies. Each one has a different time and place.

“I’m proud of the work that we did at Notre Dame. I’m proud of the time. We raised our family there. We loved it. But it was time to move on and the next challenge was the LSU challenge. That, in 3.5 years, was too much to get to.”