As college football prepares for championship week and establishing this year’s final four, coaches are stealing the headlines.
Lincoln Riley will not coach the Oklahoma Sooners in whatever bowl game the program ends up in. Riley has already been introduced as the next head coach at USC. The Sooners have no shot at the college football playoff.
More curious is Brian Kelly’s exit from Notre Dame for LSU.
In a move right on brand with his sleazy tendencies, Kelly texted his team the news after they had already found out. His in-person meeting with the team lasted less than 5 minutes and no questions were fielded.
A selfish, me-first human being, Kelly is bailing on his team the week before the college football playoff committee reveals its playoff participants. Notre Dame has appeared in two of the last three playoffs and has a shot at its third in four years.
Kelly either doesn’t think the Irish will get in, doesn’t think they will win if they do get in. Maybe he’s right, under Kelly the Irish are 0-2 in the playoffs and have been obliterated on each occasion.
But why not wait a week? For the players he recruited, for his employer, to let the weekend play out? Because Kelly no longer cares.
Kelly’s message is crystal clear: No need to finish what you start, when you can take the money and run.