Brian Kelly’s four-year tenure as LSU’s head coach ended last October. However, his biggest undoing was not underperforming at the Tigers. Instead, it was offering indirect support to the Texas A&M Aggies by firing a coach who has now turned the program around.

In his bid to change the team’s culture, one of Kelly’s major moves after joining LSU was to initiate a massive overhaul. It involved the firing of longtime strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt, who earned $560k at the time. But two seasons later, Texas A&M hired Moffitt, and he has been one of the main forces behind their improvement lately.

Before Brian Kelly’s hire, Moffitt had spent 21 seasons at Baton Rouge as the strength and conditioning coach. He served under three coaches and won three national titles with Nick Saban, Les Miles, and Ed Orgeron. Individually, he also won several strength-and-conditioning awards. Before LSU, he had brief stints in Miami and Tennessee as well.

Undoubtedly, one of Kelly’s biggest mistakes was firing the “secret sauce” to LSU’s dominance, as Moffitt was labeled by former LSU All-American and Pro Bowler Patrick Peterson. With him in the weight room, the program produced multiple NFL draft picks from 2006 to 2014, including 13 first-rounders. Following his firing, he ignored other opportunities to return to coaching and focused on virtual strength and conditioning, designing programs for coaches and athletes.

When he was set to return to college football, he contacted an agent who felt it was almost impossible for him to get a role in a top college football program. Well, it did not take long for his new job at College Station to make the headlines. And in just a little while, he has turned the program around.

He was one of the main additions to Elko’s staff after he joined the Aggies. With him, they won 11 games in the 2025 season and reached their first-ever College Football Playoff. They also had their best SEC performance (7-1) since 2020. Having an efficient weight room, it’s evident that the program is heading in the right direction.

“Every day when you’re with Coach Moffitt, he’s coming up with new ways to push you, to make you better,” Texas A&M receiver Mario Craver said. “If it’s in you, he’s going to get it out of you … and then take you to another level.”

Elko had heard of Moffitt from Jeremy Jacobs, who was the associate director of football strength and conditioning at Duke under Elko and had previously worked under Moffitt at LSU. But when they met, he was more astonished by Moffitt’s intelligence.

“That was probably my biggest concern because you just have this vision, and it was a complete stereotype because I had no reason to think this old-school, tough-minded guy was going to be up-to-date with everything,” Elko said.

“But then, when I talked to him, probably the thing I was most blown away with was how well-read and well-researched he was in sports science. We are very similar in that regard, in that there’s a discipline and accountability piece of football that we both believe is really important, but we do it in a really modern way of using science and letting science drive a lot of our decision-making. From that perspective, we aligned perfectly.”

Moffitt’s knowledge of sports science has been crucial to the Aggies’ success, as he and his staff use five devices to track the athletes. Former LSU running back Jacob Hester credits Moffitt for changing his career with his

Tommy Moffitt had his revenge on Brian Kelly

Moffitt was hurt by Kelly’s decision to lay him off in 2021. It came without any consideration of his profile, achievements, or relationship with the players. He had been willing to stay before he received the letter breaking the news.

“I was in my office because I was trying to get in touch with Coach Kelly to start planning our offseason, the dates and all that. It was a Friday afternoon, and he was named the coach earlier in the week,” Moffitt said. “I knew he was in the office and I was kinda waiting until 5:30 or 6 o’clock. If I didn’t hear anything, I was just going to go home.”

He was called into Kelly’s not long after, not to plan the offseason, but to be laid off immediately.

“So I go in there, and I get let go. Pretty short and sweet,” Moffitt recounted. “I’m walking back down the hallway, and all those guys are like, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘I got fired,’ and they’re like, ‘No way.’”

In a funny twist, Kelly was fired the next day after a 49-25 home loss to Tommy Moffitt’s program. It was said that Moffitt brought a tackling dummy with Kelly’s face to practice that week.