LSU HC Brian Kelly once went on a transformation journey during his time at Notre Dame

Brian Kelly has been doing well with the LSU Tigers for the last two seasons, giving a tough time to the likes of Alabama in the Southeastern Conference. Before turning up at Baton Rouge, he spent more than a decade leading the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

In 2010, he went on a transformative journey both on and off the field. He had just joined the Fighting Irish and wanted to work on the fitness of the team. While he transformed his program on the field, Kelly also took up yoga and worked out for his personal fitness.

“I didn’t want to work 20 years to get to Notre Dame and then have a heart attack and die. So I lost some weight working out virtually every day and really just tried to lower the chance of all those things that come with the stress of being a head football coach, especially at Notre Dame,” he was quoted as saying by Coach & AD back then.

Fast forward to the spring of 2017, and he was coming off a 4-8 season. He was again reported to be working out extensively and losing quite a bit of weight. While Brian Kelly didn't say anything about his weight loss officially, he lost around 20 pounds, according to unofficial estimates at the time.

He looked much leaner in the spring of that year as he worked to revamp his roster after a disappointing 2016 season. The team went through a big transition and got better results the following year.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly

Kelly changed the offensive and defensive coordinators with an extensive squad overhaul. He got the fruits of his labor as a reenergized Fighting Irish finished the 2017 season with a much better 9-3 record. They also lifted the Citrus Bowl title after beating Louisiana State 21-17.

After that, he never had a losing season at South Bend for four more years before making a switch to Baton Rouge in 2022.

Why did Brian Kelly not consider going to Michigan after Jim Harbaugh's NFL jump?

Brian Kelly was one of the names that did the rounds as a replacement for Jim Harbaugh in Michigan. But he is still helming the Tigers, while Sherrone Moore has taken over the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. So why did Kelly not go to the team that had just won the national title in January this year? It was because he wanted to remain in the SEC.

“This was a conscious decision to come to LSU because I wanted to be in this conference. It was much more than an individual school as much as it was, collectively, I wanted to play in the SEC and play the competition that’s here,” he said in an interview.

LSU coach Brian Kelly speaks to the media during a press conference

Kelly's Tigers had a 10-3 run last year and missed out on the SEC West title to Nick Saban's Alabama. With coach Saban no longer at the helm in Tuscaloosa, this might be the year that LSU explodes in the conference. But first, it will need to replace its 2023 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Jayden Daniels.