Brian Kelly lands broadcasting job after ugly $54 million LSU firing fight

No play calling for now for Brian Kelly, but he will call Mountain West games for CBS this season.

The recently fired LSU coach will join a three-man broadcasting team that covers Mountain West games during the 2026-27 season, per Front Office Sports.

The report said Kelly will also regularly feature as an analyst on the CBSSN weekday program, “Inside College Football.”

Kelly, 64, first joined CBS as part of their studio coverage for the NFL draft.

He was fired midway through the 2025 season after a lackluster 5-3 start and a drop out of the top 25.

Kelly spent four seasons with LSU, going 34-14 with two 10-win campaigns.

The school owed Kelly a $54 million buyout in what turned out to be an ugly split.

He’s spent 22 seasons coaching, starting at Central Michigan before moving to Notre Dame and LSU.

Kelly is the all-time winningest coach for Notre Dame and led the Fighting Irish to the College Football Playoffs twice.

He told USA Today in April that he hoped to coach again, but did not get a job in one of the craziest coaching cycles in recent memory.

Thirty-two FBS jobs opened up at some point during the year, 17 of which were Power Four job.

“I still want to make a difference,” Kelly said. “All the young men that have been under my charge over 35 years, I feel like I have a lot still to give. Even with all this money in college football, they still need mentorship, still need development. Money aside, I have a lot to give. And my motivation is to want to get back to building relationships and successful programs in college football.”

Kelly could follow in the footsteps of Dan Mullen, who worked as a college football analyst for ESPN and ABC after getting fired from Florida before becoming UNLV’s head coach last fall.