Why should we ever hire a guy who lost back-to-back games to the coach we just paid $50 million to get rid of? In Tallahassee, this is the exact question that fans would be asking each other and one that exposes a structural absurdity of college football economics.
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Florida State University is financially hamstrung after paying a record $50.3 million to buy out Mike Norvell and move on from a program in a tailspin. But before the ink on Norvell’s exit deal could dry, former LSU coach Brian Kelly began publicly flirting with the idea of becoming FSU’s next coach. The institutional irony has fans triggered.
During his tenure at LSU, Kelly faced Norvell’s Florida State teams in consecutive season openers, losing a 24-23 heartbreaker in 2022 before being defeated 45-24 in 2023. For a fanbase that watched LSU dismiss Kelly in October 2025 for failing to meet championship expectations, the idea of hiring him feels less like a strategic rebuild and more like a gamble. A potentially huge and similarly expensive one.
Kelly openly discussed his interest in the vacancy on November 3, two days after Norvell was dismissed. The team was 3-5 in 2026, and had gone 10-22 overall since their ACC Championship victory in 2023. The ex-LSU coach, speaking on College Sports Radio on SiriusXM, said:
“When you’re talking to an unemployed football coach, every job’s a great job, you know?” he said. “But Florida State, look, I’ve got a great history with Florida State, great games.”
This is proper campaigning, but a fanbase like FSU’s, already furious about how badly things are going, won’t want someone who was overpaid at LSU and delivered only modest returns. Kelly was paid $95 million to deliver a championship, and the message was clear: winning nine or ten games a year in Baton Rouge wasn’t going to cut it.
He joined LSU in 2022 and led the Tigers to a Citrus Bowl win, though they fell short in the SEC Championship Game. The following year, LSU won the ReliaQuest Bowl, then the Texas Bowl a year later. But a national championship remained out of reach. After a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M in 2025, Kelly was fired. Beyond the results, the New England native reportedly struggled to fit into Louisiana’s culture and had a falling out with athletic director Scott Woodward.
That’s not the kind of baggage Florida State fans want in their next coach. The Seminoles reached 13-0 in 2023 and had their sights set on a national championship. Norvell’s teams appeared unlikely to get them there, so the university moved on earlier this year, albeit at a steep cost. Kelly’s LSU exit came with a similar price tag. Kelly gets paid $800,000 a month by LSU as part of his buyout package from the program.
That is a costly cycle in college football. Jimbo Fisher is another coach reportedly interested in returning to FSU. Texas A&M still owes him about $7 million a year through 2031 under his buyout, and his contract reportedly has no offset clause. Any salary he earns in a new job would come on top of those payments.
Kelly’s buyout works differently: a new football job could reduce what LSU owes him. But FSU would still have to pay Norvell’s buyout and Kelly’s salary if it hired him. For fans, that raises the question: why take on another costly contract while still paying off the last one?
“I’d rather hire Mike Norvell again,” a fan wrote under the X post which quoted Kelly calling the potential opportunity to coach in Florida ‘an honor and privilege’.
Let’s go back a few more years to understand the familiarity between Kelly and the FSU faithful. Back in 2014, when he was Notre Dame coach, the Seminoles beat his Fighting Irish 31-27, before Notre Dame claimed a 41-38 overtime win in 2021. Kelly has fond memories of those encounters, but fans don’t.
“Hard pass….” another fan wrote, while one said, “Oh HELL NO!!”
Beyond his record, FSU fans may also be wary of Kelly’s public image. Some LSU fans found his early attempts to fit in awkward. Kelly, who grew up in Massachusetts, gave a speech at an LSU basketball game just days after arriving in Baton Rouge. He spoke in an exaggerated Southern drawl, stretching out the word “family.” The clip quickly went viral and drew plenty of mockery. Former LSU coach Ed Orgeron later said the moment hurt Kelly’s credibility with fans and players from the start.
“This would be a terrible hire,” one fan wrote, appearing unconvinced that Kelly would fit Florida State’s football culture.
Florida State has launched its national coaching search, with four regular-season games remaining. Rick Stockstill will serve as interim coach, while former Florida State national championship coach Jimbo Fisher has also surfaced as a potential candidate. Kelly has made his interest known. Whether Florida State wants to return that interest is another matter.