When Expectations Break Away: Leadership Lessons from Brian Kelly’s Fall at LSU
When Brian Kelly accepted the head coaching job at LSU, he wasn’t just inheriting a football team; he was taking on a legacy. LSU is one of those rare programs where good is never good enough. The fans demand championships, and the culture expects dominance. Everyone who takes that job understands that, especially Brian Kelly.
He arrived in Baton Rouge with decades of success behind him, having turned Cincinnati into a contender, taking Notre Dame to the College Football Playoff, and winning more games than almost any active coach in the country. LSU saw him as the adult in the room, the proven program-builder who could bring order to chaos.
And for a while, he did. He won ten games. Then another ten. Then nine. On paper, that’s success. But in a “win-now” SEC culture, context matters most. LSU didn’t pay for stability; it paid for championships. And when the rings didn’t arrive fast enough, patience ran out.
Kelly’s recent firing is both a leadership and a football story. It’s about expectations, cultural fit, and the difficulty of managing feedback when criticism drowns out signs of progress. It’s a story from which every leader can learn.
1. The Weight of Expectations
At LSU, ten wins aren’t celebrated…they’re tolerated. Every decision, mistake, and post-game quote is amplified through the lens of a fanbase that believes the national title should always be within reach. Kelly’s leadership challenge was his ability to define success within a system that already believed it knew what success should look like. In that kind of environment, even progress can feel like failure if it doesn’t align with the pre-set narrative.
Leadership Lesson: Before you lead, you have to understand the expectation environment you’re walking into. What are the written and unwritten standards? Who defines “winning”? And what happens when the scoreboard doesn’t reflect the effort?
For your own teams, that lesson matters just as much. If you’re leading people who believe success equals perfection, you’ll spend most of your time explaining progress instead of celebrating it. Clarity around expectations is your starting point.
2. Feedback Breakdown: The Noise and the Signal
When LSU lost badly to Texas A&M, the criticism turned personal. The chants of “Fire Kelly” filled Tiger Stadium. At the same time, reports surfaced of disagreement between Kelly and the athletic director over staff changes.
That’s what it looks like when feedback collapses. External noise grows so loud that internal alignment starts to fracture. Kelly’s challenge wasn’t the existence of feedback; it was the imbalance between the two sources:
External feedback—fans, boosters, media—was loud, emotional, and immediate.
Internal feedback—from his staff, players, and culture—was quieter, more nuanced, and easily drowned out.
Leadership Lesson: Feedback always comes in layers. Loud doesn’t mean right, and quiet doesn’t mean irrelevant. The leader’s job is to build a filter that is a disciplined way to discern which input deserves attention and which is simply noise.
In your own world, that might mean separating headquarters pressure from on-the-ground realities, or public opinion from mission needs. Every organization has its version of the LSU crowd; every leader has to decide whose voice carries the most weight.
3. Culture and Context Matter
Kelly’s resume was impeccable. But leadership isn’t just about what you’ve done in the past. It’s about where and how you’re doing it now. LSU’s culture was not Notre Dame’s. Baton Rouge is a crucible of intensity, where loyalty is conditional and time is short. NIL deals, transfer rules, and social media commentary made the pace of leadership faster than ever.
Kelly’s process-oriented, methodical approach may have worked at Notre Dame, where tradition and patience still meant something. At LSU, it clashed with the speed of modern expectations.
Leadership Lesson: Leadership success doesn’t always transfer from environment to environment. When the pace, tone, or temperature of a culture changes, you have to adjust your cadence without abandoning your character.
4. The Infinite Game vs. the Short Game
Simon Sinek’s idea of the Infinite Game argues that great leaders play for legacy, not just for quarterly wins. Kelly tried to build for sustainability: recruiting depth, developing culture, and setting a foundation for consistent excellence. But LSU plays a finite game, and the expectation is to win now and win often.
When those goals conflict, patience evaporates. Kelly wasn’t fired for losing; he was fired for not winning fast enough.
Leadership Lesson: You can’t play the infinite game inside a finite system. The art of leadership is balancing the long-term health of the organization with the short-term demands of the environment. That balance is what separates resilient leaders from replaceable ones.
5. The Takeaway for Leaders
Brian Kelly’s downfall is a mirror for anyone in leadership. He didn’t fail because he couldn’t lead. He failed because his leadership model didn’t fit the environment he inherited.
Ask yourself:
Do my expectations match the reality of this culture?
Am I hearing both the noise and the signal?
Is my leadership pace aligned with what my team and stakeholders need today?
Good leaders succeed by skill. Great leaders succeed by fit. They read the room, understand the rhythm, and adjust without losing themselves.
Final Reflection: Leading Beyond the Roar
Leadership in high-pressure environments is rarely about competence. Brian Kelly’s LSU tenure is a case study in what happens when excellence meets impatience. It shows how even proven leaders can stumble when their style, timing, and context drift out of sync.
But it also offers hope. Because the same forces that unseat a leader can refine one. Kelly’s experience is a vivid reminder that every leader faces two games at once: the external game of perception and the internal game of progress. The challenge is to keep both moving forward without letting one destroy the other.
For leaders in any field or profession, the real test is whether you can build a culture strong enough to withstand the pressure of losing without losing its way.
That’s the infinite game. That’s the kind of leadership that lasts.
This article was also featured on Medium
About the Author
Clayton Thompson, Ph.D., is a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force with over 20 years of leadership experience. He is the author of the upcoming book RA-RA Feedback: It’s Not a Moment. It’s a System! for building trust, accelerating growth, and creating a leadership advantage.
