LSU head coach Brian Kelly left Notre Dame because he felt like he couldn’t win a national championship there. Well, the Fighting Irish are a win away from proving him very, very wrong.

When Kelly took the job at LSU, debate ensued. Notre Dame fans felt slighted by Kelly’s departure and wanted to prove that South Bend was a place with the resources to win a national title. Freeman got the Irish close, but not any closer than Kelly did in 2012.

Brian Kelly and the LSU coaching staff will have a new-look roster in Baton Rouge come the 2025 season with a myriad of newcomers in town. Kelly and Co. will br

Three years after Brian Kelly left for LSU, Notre Dame is in the national championship game. Here's why the players think Marcus Freeman got them this far.

Notre Dame has clinched its first College Football Playoff National Championship berth since 1988, defeating Penn State in a thrilling 27-24 showdown. The Fighting Irish, now led by head coach Marcus Freeman,

The Fighting Irish were coming off their worst three-year stretch in some time when Kelly was hired. Through his 12 years in South Bend, Kelly compiled seven records of 10 or more wins and coached 55 NFL Draft picks, including 10 first-rounders.

In total, Notre Dame has gone 33-9 under Freeman, with wins in the Gator Bowl, Sun Bowl, and three College Football Playoff games. Over that same period, LSU has gone 29-11 under Kelly, and has never reached the CFP.

The Orange Bowl was a huge win for that program. The fact that they made it all this way — against Penn State, no less — speaks to the job Freeman has done. To go from losing to Northern Illinois at the beginning of the season to playing for a national championship is unheard of.

Brian Kelly and his LSU Tigers coaching staff are trying to completely reshape the roster and the organization as a whole in hopes to reach the College Football Playoff in 2025. The LSU Tigers fell short of expectations this past fall finishing 8-4 in the regular season,