WHY BRIAN KELLY FAILED AT LSU | THE UNTOLD STORY OF MORALITY CLAUSES, DIVORCE PAPERS, DISENFRANCHISED PLAYERS + MORE

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By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

Only hours into Brian Kelly's $100 million tenure at LSU, he'd already made the biggest mistakes of his entire 3 1/2 seasons in charge.

The roots of his future firing would be set in the embryonic days of his time at the helm; From late November- early December 2021, Brian Kelly had already created enemies, disrespected Tiger fans, fired as many legends of the program (immediately upon arrival) as he possibly could, and distanced himself above the same university he coached....

During the transition, many assistant coaches didn't even know they were being fired or retained, as Kelly (and his quickly forming new staff of Notre Dame loyalists) froze out the remaining assistants with zero contact or communication....leaving some behind the 8 ball concerning other jobs.

This lack of acknowledgement even made LSU's longtime CBs Coach Corey Raymond jet out of the program to Florida....a once unthinkable move....

One of his first team meetings kicked off when Kelly forced starting cornerback (and former 5 star) Dwight McGlothern to leave the program due to being "on time" instead of "early" for a team meeting....(McGlothern would end up an All-American with 7 INTs at Arkansas over the next few seasons, while LSU didn't start or play a single All-American defensive back over those next few years).

Head Trainer Tommy Moffitt, the decades-long, ultimate heartbeat of the locker room was also driven out, coldly told to pack up his office by an impersonal, indirect liaison amid the falling rain of the LSU Operations parking lot...

Then RBs Coach & eternal LSU legend Kevin Faulk told LSUOdyssey in 2023 he was forced to pack up his things without a single word or discussion...

But alongside these wide ranging, broad sweeping changes to the complete makeup of LSU football (attempting to recreate LSU in his own image), Kelly made another major mistake only hours upon his arrival in Baton Rouge:

Before he'd even coached a snap at LSU, just hours after stepping off the school's private plane, Kelly was allegedly shown his multi-million dollar Lakeshore Drive mansion by Jewel Fourier, the real estate agent daughter of former LSU Gymnastics Coach Dee Dee Breaux.

The rest of this reporting is based on a few years' worth of sources, conversations, and situations/evidence falling into place:

At some point during that meeting, Brian Kelly and Fourier allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship, one that was revealed to Kelly's wife Paqui only weeks later and caused a public scene for an all too brief moment:

After a few months of inner turmoil and personal drama as Kelly attempted to rebuild and reconfigure LSU as "Notre Dame of the South", the now former LSU Head Coach filed divorce and restraining order proceedings against his wife Paqui.

Paqui & Brian Kelly pictured on their wedding day, in July 1994

The existence of such documents was first reported by TigerRag, the on campus newspaper of LSU, and immediately their reporting was silenced, muzzled, shut down, and called "fake news" by the LSU PR machine, joined by a rabid amount of protective, defensive LSU fans, as well as Kelly's own family.

Right when the news began to sweep the internet, Kelly's son Patrick (also on LSU's staff) took a photo of Brian Kelly and Paqui cuddling in the booth of a restaurant as if they were on their first date, with the caption "fake news";

Grace Kelly, Brian's daughter, also took a photo saying "things look fine to me". Both photos went viral....before the siblings quietly deleted them later on.

At the same time, nobody ever addressed (or asked the man himself) about the obvious, documented fact Kelly filed divorce papers, or went to the lengths of filing a restraining order against his own wife of multiple decades...

During this time, Paqui Kelly also registered a response divorce filing, with contents outlining his alleged infidelity; Yet, for Kelly's ultimate benefit, Paqui would retract the filing, and this story was buried fast....mostly forgotten in the haze of incessant LSU news.

However, in the end, this incident would end up costing Kelly a major chunk of money.

Due to these off field distractions & lack of on-field interest, Kelly was distant, withdrawn, and quick to delegate any and all "non photo op" tasks to his assistant coaches or support staff, hiding on the balcony of his upstairs office....beautifully overlooking the train tracks, backed by a stunning view of the imperious Tiger Stadium to your right, and the Ponderosa practice field to your left. This was the same place where Nick Saban told Jimmy Sexton he was heading to Miami....the same setting where Skip Bertman used to scheme and plot LSU's ascendancy....and now it was being used as an aristocratic shield.

Called "the Wizard of Oz" by a longtime servant of the program, Kelly rarely met with players, only knew maybe half of their names, was constantly shielded from other human beings by state troopers or private security (even at team functions or school / fundraising events), refusing to meet or talk to parents of players (except for a few very isolated circumstances), preferred golf trips over recruiting trail grinding, frequented 5 star hotels & Michelin star restaurants over eating with locals or sleeping in the office...

"He wasn't made for the SEC grind...I could smell it a mile away, but we paid him...man, why the hell did we pay him?" A higher up within the athletic department told LSUOdyssey on conditions of anonymity.

You didn't have to look far for players who would go after Kelly in public:

First, Kelly's starting center in 2022-2023 (also a member of the 2019 National Championship squad), Charles Turner III, went public after the 2023 season, detailing how Kelly never made any effort to get to know him whatsoever.

The mother of LSU's all time leading receiver, Malik Nabers, told LSUOdyssey she "never met Kelly once".....no wonder a "kicking rocks" GIF was the 6th overall pick's immediate reaction to Kelly's firing.

LSUOdyssey is full of plenty of stories that foretold Kelly's disconnect and issues, while there's about 15 more that could be written right now....

Though it took almost 4 years for most people around LSU to realize the truth at Brian Kelly's core, now, there is nowhere for the former LSU Head Coach to hide:

Right from the get-go, Kelly didn't work hard enough, he didn't respect Louisiana at all, he felt he was above the legacy, the tradition, and the very localized fabric of LSU.....and he proved that with his actions almost immediately.

But because he was insulated from criticism by loyalist sycophants within the local media & fanbase, most of the same voices titilated by Kelly's firing (singing joyously at his exit) were stone cold Kelly loyalists over the last 3 years, almost acting more like fans of Brian Kelly than LSU......but now it's all coming out...and no one's holding back anymore.

Kelly's buyout was an unthinkable $53 million, but now, following negotiation meetings activating the "morality clause" within his contract, Brian Kelly's alleged infidelity is coming back to haunt the one thing he seems to care about most: his wallet. Only this time, Kelly doesn't have a public relations machine to bury the story or scores of Tiger fans lining up to defend him.

By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

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