Surprising Name Linked To Michigan Football Coaching Job

Since the 2023-24 season came to a close, the future of the Wolverines has been in question — just as we’ve seen in years past, Jim Harbaugh is flirting with the NFL. However, unlike past years, it appears that he may very well be leaving and has interviewed multiple times for two openings in the league. With Harbaugh eying an NFL return, insider Bruce Feldman and others have linked an interesting name to fill a potential Michigan football coaching vacancy: ex-Notre Dame and current LSU head coach Brian Kelly.

Interesting name linked to potential Michigan football coaching search

Brian Kelly is a familiar name for most Michigan football fans. Why? Well, Kelly coached the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for a number of years, including seven contests against the Wolverines. In those seven games, he went 3-4, including a humiliating 45-14 beatdown in Ann Arbor back in 2019.

Now, Kelly is leading the LSU Tigers, though it’s clear that he is not a great culture fit in the SEC, and if Michigan football needs a replacement at head coach, Brian Kelly is a name that continues to be mentioned. Of course, most fans would like Sherrone Moore to replace Jim Harbaugh — whenever that may be — but insiders continue to link Kelly to a potential opening in Ann Arbor.

“Kelly, 62, is a really good coach, but the bar in Baton Rouge is incredibly high,” wrote Bruce Feldman, a college football insider for The Athletic. “The last three coaches there all won national titles. Making it to a 12-team College Football Playoff but not winning a title won’t cut it.

“I’ve heard lots of chatter that if he could get in on Michigan, he’d probably go for it,” he added.

Ex-Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly an option for the Michigan Wolverines?

Of course, Michigan’s ideal outcome here would be for Jim Harbaugh to reject the NFL and return to Ann Arbor as head coach for a 10th season in 2024; however, it appears less and less likely that this is in the cards. Still, we’ll wait and see how things pan out following Harbaugh’s second round of interviews with the Falcons and Chargers before panicking about his future too much.

During his 20-year college football head coaching career — which includes stops with Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and LSU — Brian Kelly has an impressive 186-69 overall record, including a 113-40 stint with Notre Dame and a 20-7 record with LSU. Kelly also recorded a few CFP berths and top-10 finishes during his time in South Bend.

Sherrone Moore is the guy, but Kelly continues to be rumored

I doubt that Michigan football will look outside of the program, seeing as Sherrone Moore is already in the building, but Brian Kelly is an interesting name that continues to be linked to a potential Michigan football coaching search if Jim Harbaugh is to head back to the NFL after leading the Wolverines to a national title and more.

If Harbaugh is to leave, he would have turned around the 5-7 program that he took over back in 2014, going 89-25 over the course of nine seasons, including three Big Ten titles, three CFP berths, and a National Championship victory in his most recent season.

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