LSU became the latest team to fire its head coach in the middle of the 2025 season, parting ways with Brian Kelly after a blowout loss to Texas A&M over the weekend. Kelly led the Tigers for less than four full seasons and was unable to lead them to a College Football Playoff appearance or a championship.
Along with LSU not living up to the school’s title aspirations under Kelly’s lead, former Tigers offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth indicated Kelly lacked the energy that many other great coaches have. Whitworth, who played under Nick Saban and helped the Tigers win a championship in 2003, says he doesn’t know Kelly, but didn’t feel Kelly had interest in bringing back successful alumni that could be helpful to the program.
“If you look across college football, some of the coaches we see being featured all the time from the energy they bring and who they are in the locker room, it sticks out like a sore thumb who the guys are who are like, ‘Man, I’d love to play for that guy.’ To your point, I don’t know Brian Kelly at all either,” Whitworth said on the Fitz & Whit podcast. “But what I do know is I’ve reached out multiple times to like, ‘Hey, man, if there’s anything I can do to mentor, to help, just be there for you, if there’s a conversation that we can have behind the scenes, I don’t need anybody to know about it, but love to help you. And gotten lots of like, ‘Oh that’s great, I’ll keep that in mind,’ type stuff. So it doesn’t seem like an interest level there.”
Whitworth also said, “I don’t know anyone that shares the side of, ‘Hey, y’all, yea, this dude, his impact, his energy, all those things,’ I haven’t heard a single story. In fact, I’ve only heard really stories to the other side of it. You’ve even seen some current players who just played for him coming out and saying one of the worst experiences they’ve ever had as far as a human being and the leader that he was.”
In contrast, Whitworth said that the first thing interim coach Frank Wilson did after getting promoted was texting former players to let them know they’re welcome at practice or on the sidelines any time.
Especially in the current age of college football, Whitworth didn’t understand why former LSU stars weren’t more involved beforehand. With the amount of money schools are spending on their football programs and coaches, Whitworth believes it’s smart to lean on former players that have helped the school be successful in the past.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Andrew Whitworth Shares Key Problems He Saw With Brian Kelly’s Tenure at LSU.