Kelly on Potential of Leading Seminoles: ‘An Honor and Privilege’

Brian Kelly has coached enough games against the Florida State Seminoles to know what a Saturday night in Tallahassee sounds like. 

Asked about working the home sideline at Doak Campbell Stadium, the former Notre Dame and LSU coach opened with a joke about the employment prospects of an out-of-work coach. Then he gave the Seminoles a reason to think he’d take their call.

“I’ve got a great history with Florida State, great games,” Kelly said on SiriusXM College Sports Radio. 

“I know what that’s like, the history and tradition of Florida State, playing in that state, and the fan base.”

Kelly said leading the program “would be an honor and privilege.” 

He stopped short of saying he had pursued the opening. 

The school announced a national search Sunday after firing Mike Norvell eight games into his seventh season. Former Seminoles quarterback Rick Stockstill will coach the team on an interim basis.

Kelly had a few games to choose from when he mentioned his history with the Seminoles. In 2014, his Notre Dame team appeared to have beaten the defending national champions in Tallahassee.

An offensive pass interference flag wiped out the apparent go-ahead touchdown in the final seconds, and Florida State escaped 31-27.

Seven years later, Kelly got to walk out of the same stadium a winner when Jonathan Doerer kicked a 41-yard field goal in overtime to give the Irish a 41-38 victory. 

Norvell himself figures in that history. 

In Kelly’s first game at LSU, the Tigers scored a touchdown as time expired in New Orleans. All they needed was the extra point to send the game to overtime. Florida State blocked it and won 24-23. 

Kelly went on to win the SEC West that fall, the first of back-to-back 10-win seasons at LSU. He had already taken Notre Dame to two College Football Playoffs. 

For all his affection for those games, Kelly spent a good portion of the interview talking about Indiana. 

The Hoosiers winning a national championship had changed his view of the competition a school like Florida State faces.

A few years ago, he said, Indiana’s football history would have been reason enough for plenty of people to dismiss its chances.

Now any coach taking the Florida State job has to explain how he plans to beat programs that once would have been left out of the conversation entirely.

That part of Kelly’s answer speaks to how quickly the job came open. Norvell took the Seminoles to 13-0 and an ACC championship in 2023, only to have the playoff committee leave them out. 

Florida State missed a bowl each of the next two seasons. By the time the school made the change Sunday, the Seminoles were 3-5, and the coach who had won that conference title was still less than three years removed from it. 

Kelly still sees value in walking into a recruit’s home with the Seminole logo on his shirt. What he questioned was how long that advantage lasts if somebody else does a better job putting a roster together. 

He even invoked Radio Shack as an example of how widely recognized a name can remain after customers have gone elsewhere.

 It was a curious comparison from a coach who had just praised Florida State’s tradition. It also gets at the question his radio appearance leaves for the school. 

Kelly knows what winning in Tallahassee used to require. If the Seminoles call, they’ll want to hear what he thinks it takes now.