Now that he's been out of the coaching scene for coming up on a year, Brian Kelly seems like he's ready to put himself out there again.
The former LSU coach has seen three jobs come open
in quick succession and, despite his rather ignominious exit from Baton Rouge, he has a history of winning that will make him an appealing candidate at a lower-pressure destination. The Power Four jobs open are Maryland, Baylor, and NC State.Kelly spoke on the jobs available and had praise for all of them while citing them as good jobs for myriad reasons — not least of which is the recruiting grounds on which they reside. While Kelly didn't rank them — after all,
all three might end up reaching out to him about their vacancies — he did shout out one's conference, in particular, on Sirius XM.
"They're all unique, right?" Kelly said. "ACC, Big 12, and the Big Ten. You know from a conference standpoint, the Big Ten obviously has proved itself to have that kind of appeal, right? With Maryland. It is a fertile recruiting area, there's no doubt, that DMV area is a really good recruiting area. I think they've done great things in terms of updating facilities."
Kelly then moved onto NC State:
"North Carolina State, another great recruiting area," he said. "The ACC conference, other than Miami with Clemson not being where they were before, it's a shot right? I can win this thing at the ACC level, and I think that that's what makes it very attractive as well as the geographical area."
He closed with Baylor.
"And then Baylor, it's Texas. You know?" he said. "You're going to have players, at Baylor. And that's an institutional commitment that they've made. So you know, you may say these are not the 'blue chip,' but they have the ability to be part of the playoffs each and every year. And they have the ability to contend within their league, and that's what makes all of these jobs attractive in my opinion."
Kelly's name has been most often mentioned alongside Maryland in the early going, although that already had momentum since Mike Locksley seemed to be on his way out for some time. More jobs will likely become available as the season droves on. We'll see if Kelly remains as vocal as the coaching carousel starts to have more seats open.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coaching free agent Brian Kelly lists allure for each of Maryland, Baylor, NC State
