For most of Brian Kelly's time at LSU, Notre Dame fans have taken great pleasure in his many failures. However, since being fired by the Bayou Bengals, the school has somehow managed to look like the bad guys. That's quite an accomplishment when dealing with the former Irish coach.
And yet, Kelly won the battle. After weeks of talk that LSU would fire Kelly "with cause," meaning they would find a way to get out of paying him his $54 million buyout, they folded on Wednesday. It's not hard to guess at what recently unemployed head coach is thankful for this Thanksgiving.
LSU tried everything. They even tried to claim the ex-Notre Dame coach was never actually fired. This tactic was a weird ploy to claim he stopped showing up to work. They tried working out a deal where he would take less than what he was owed in his contract. And then the Tigers' administration finally realized they didn't have a leg to stand on.
Why LSU’s misfire with Brian Kelly could work in Notre Dame’s favor
So why did Brian Kelly finally get his final victory? Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes the administration, complete with the governor of Louisiana, who has made one foolish statement after another, realized they have looked bad and have especially looked bad to whoever they hire to replace Kelly.
"It may have something to do with the recruitment of Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin," Florio wrote. "And it may have been aimed at persuading Kiffin that, if he takes the job and doesn’t win enough games for the school’s liking, he won’t get jerked around on the way out the door."
Whatever the reason, and even though no Notre Dame fan should consider Brian Kelly any kind of ally, this kind of thing makes life harder for LSU. The Tigers are, at some point, going to focus on trying to win games again, and this whole situation makes them look foolish. That's good for everyone they're competing against.
There's also the school spending tens of millions of dollars that they absolutely did not want to spend. All of this makes Brian Kelly an ally of sorts for Notre Dame simply because it undercuts a school that could, at some point, become a rival for the Fighting Irish again.