When Jafau Delane watches football, his eyes turn to the sideline.
That’s where Delane — a former youth football coach and the father of two sons playing at LSU and Ohio State — learns about the quality of a team. How do they walk out to the field? Are they confident and have an extra pep in their step, or is their body language poor, almost waiting for the next bad thing to happen?
“These are just subtle things that I think as players, you don’t realize it’s being done,” Jafau said. “But when you’re excited about anything, you run to the moment.”
When Delane watched LSU play this season, he didn’t see a group of players that were eager for the moment. Delane, whose son Mansoor is a star senior cornerback with the Tigers, saw something else instead, especially when it was LSU’s struggling offense that was trotting out to the field.
“If you go back and watch the tape, it didn’t seem like the offense was locking in and getting ready to go change the tide of the game,” Delane said. “And then when they would go on, if it wasn’t a TV timeout, it was a very lackadaisical approach.”
LSU decison-makers must’ve agreed with Delane, or at the very least were concerned with the results of that bad body language, those being a 5-3 record and another season without a College Football Playoff appearance.
Their worries were big enough to where they made a sweeping decision on Sunday night to fire the coach responsible for all of those problems: Brian Kelly.
“As a fan, we’re sitting back watching it, and you can see, what are we doing? Jafau said. “Like, the communication was horrible.”
Kelly’s tenure ends at LSU after less than four years into a 10-year, $100 million contract. He left Notre Dame and arrived in Baton Rouge with grand expectations, and for good reason. He made the national championship game, reached the playoff and became the winningest coach in Notre Dame history before arriving at LSU.
But Kelly never made the playoff at LSU, and his best season in Baton Rouge ended up being his first. LSU reached the SEC Championship Game and had an outside chance of cracking playoff field deep into November.
It was also the year he inherited the most players from the previous regime under Ed Orgeron. Among those players was wide receiver Jack Bech, a sophomore who led the Tigers in receptions the year before Kelly arrived at LSU.
Bech, his mother Michelle said, had a close relationship with Orgeron.
“Coach (Orgeron) recruited him,” Michelle said. “And you know, of course, Jack was sad to see (Orgeron) leave.”
Once Kelly and his new staff took control at LSU, Bech’s relationship with them was much different than it was with Orgeron, Michelle said. Kelly and his coaches had a “different” approach to the way they wanted to run the team.
“I don’t know that Jack really ever even had that much interaction with (Kelly),” Michelle said.
Relative to his standout freshman campaign, Bech struggled in his only season under Kelly as he played through a stress fracture in his leg. He entered the transfer portal after the season ended and went to TCU, but his decision to depart the LSU had nothing to do with Kelly.
“Jack made a very independent decision to leave,” Michelle said. “It was about him being closer to my brother in law and his uncle. And it just all really worked out well for Jack.”
Meanwhile, Kelly’s reign continued at LSU with a pair of frustrating seasons in 2023 and 2024.
LSU had a historically great offense and the eventual Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback in Kelly’s second season. But a historically bad defense ended the Tigers’ hopes of reaching the playoff as LSU went 9-3 for a second consecutive year.
And the next year wasn’t any better for Kelly. The Tigers’ record dropped to 8-4 and their improvements on defense were offset by an offense that took a step in the wrong direction.
“The nature and the temperature of college football is win,” Harry Berry, the father of freshman running back Harlem Berry said. “So if you can’t do that and (win) consistently, a change is going to be made.”
But LSU’s struggles weren’t due to lackluster results on the recruiting trail. The Tigers signed top-10 classes nationally heading into both seasons, according to the 247Sports Composite.
Kelly knew the importance of recruiting the state. LSU signed 20 top-10 recruits from Louisiana during his time in Baton Rouge. Among those prospects was Tyree Adams, a four-star offensive lineman who became LSU’s starting left tackle this year.
Tyree’s mother, Barbara, met Kelly and his wife Paqui a few times over the years and only had nice things to say about the LSU coach and his wife.
“They are amazing people,” Barbara said. “They’re very nice people.”
Another top recruit LSU landed during this period was sophomore tight end Trey’Dez Green. Green has emerged as one of LSU’s top receivers this season, catching 19 passes for 274 yards and three touchdowns over the Tigers’ last three games.
Green was also prized recruit, arriving at LSU as the No. 1 tight end in the nation and the No. 2 player in Louisiana. But Casondra, Green’s mother, said she has only met Kelly twice and both times were on the recruiting trail.
“I’m not sure on the relationship that he has with him, but I know he’s talked with him many of times,” Casondra said. “I know he has the utmost respect for him.”
Two years of dissapointment for LSU led to a 2025 season where expectations were sky-high. A trip to the playoff was a must, especially after the Tigers tripled their financial commitment to the roster and added arguably the top transfer portal class in the country.
Among those top transfers was Mansoor, who arrived at LSU from Virginia Tech after three years as a starter with the Hokies. But despite his success, Jafau said he had to reach out to LSU instead of the other way around when Mansoor entered the portal.
That wasn’t the case with Texas A&M, which contacted Delane immediately when he became a free agent.
“They made it seem like as if they sought after Mansoor,” Jafau said. “In all actuality, we considered LSU and I reached out to some of the contacts that I had when (Mansoor’s younger brother Faheem) was being recruited, and sort of told them, ‘Hey, this is what we wanted to do.'”
Between Faheem’s recruitment and Mansoor’s time in the portal, Jafau built stronger relationships with Oregon coach Dan Lanning, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin than he has with Kelly.
“One of the things that I felt, even with Lane Kiffin, as much as he’s a younger guy, his personality really runs on that team as well,” Jafau said. “Dan Lanning, I know him very well. His intense attitude towards defense (results in) his teams playing very physical.
“And if you were to look at Kelly, what is that personality that he’s putting on that team? It’s not one.”
Once Mansoor arrived at LSU, he told Jafau about Kelly’s CEO approach to coaching. Kelly oversaw the operation and was “checking the boxes,” but didn’t give Jafau the sort of one-on-one instruction Jafau thought he may have received. It was not a “hands-on experience.”
“You can’t be a CEO, in a sense, and run a college football team because they have to take on that coach’s personality,” Jafau said. “And I’m not speaking only in correction, but it’s how you walk, it’s how you talk, it’s how you interact with people.”
Kelly’s CEO philosophy clearly didn’t work. LSU won its opening four contests this season but then lost three of its next four games to Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M before he was fired on Sunday night.
His termination was sudden, but the warning signs were there much earlier.
“Maybe Brian Kelly got too comfortable with the idea that success was just going to happen,” Jafau said, “versus him demanding it from the players and expecting it and knowing how close it is.”
