Who'll Be LSU's Next Coach? Sumrall, Brady, Kiffin, Franklin Betting Favorites to Replace Brian Kelly

In a move everyone saw coming when he was hired away from Notre Dame and proceeded to do a fake southern accent during his welcome speech, LSU has fired head coach Brian Kelly eight games into his fourth season at the helm ... with Tulane's Jon Sumrall (+150) opening as the favorite to replace him, according to the LSU next coach odds.

Despite Sumrall being the favorite, the LSU next coach odds aren't short on major names like Lane Kiffin, James Franklin, Jimbo Fisher, Urban Meyer, Jon Gruden, and even Nick Saban. 

With this shaping up to be one of the craziest coaching carousels of all time (Auburn and Wisconsin could potentially open next, and what if Steve Sarkisian leaves Texas for the NFL?), will athletic director Scott Woodward try to make another splash hire in Baton Rouge or go with the practical choice given what LSU owes for Kelly's buyout of over $50 million?

🐯 LSU next coach odds & betting favorites

LSU next coach odds based on the best college football odds.

🔮 Who will be LSU head coach?

🌊 Jon Sumrall, HC, Tulane (+150)

It's not shocking to see Sumrall among the favorites to be LSU's next coach; he's been pegged as a future SEC bench boss since going 12-2 in his first year as Troy's head coach in 2022 - he's the definition of a damn good ball coach. However, it's slightly surprising to see Sumrall's odds this short for a couple of reasons.

One big reason is that if Auburn fires Hugh Freeze, many expect athletic director John Cohen to hand Sumrall the keys. Sumrall was a linebacker at Kentucky when Cohen was the baseball coach and both have ties to the state of Alabama, making him an obvious candidate to lead Auburn.

Another reason is that Woodward has a history of swinging for the fences as an athletic director. At Washington, he made two major hires to help turn around the Huskies, first bringing in USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian and then hiring long-time Boise State head coach Chris Petersen. At Texas A&M, he dropped the bag to hire Jimbo Fisher away from Florida State and brought in Virginia Tech head coach Buzz Williams to lead the Aggies basketball team

And though his LSU tenure has gone poorly, with the massive hire of Kelly away from Notre Dame to replace Ed Orgeron, he did hire Kim Mulkey to lead the women's basketball program (she won LSU a championship) and Jay Johnson to lead the baseball team (he's won LSU two College World Series').

So will Woodward be able to help himself from making the splashy move to make the move every ball knower will applaud? There's also the Jeff Landry factor, with the Louisiana governor being heavily involved in LSU football, but if Sumrall does get the gig, a $10 bet at our best college football betting sites pays a $15 profit.

🦬 Joe Brady, OC, Buffalo Bills (+200)

This makes too much sense on paper. Joe Brady was the passing game coordinator for LSU's record-setting national championship team in 2019 and played a major role in helping Joe Burrow win the Heisman Trophy. 

Brady parlayed that role into the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator job under Matt Rhule, which obviously didn't go great. But he landed on his feet as the Buffalo Bills QB coach in 2022, and in 2023 took over as offensive coordinator for Ken Dorsey in November before helping Josh Allen win MVP last year.

While he does have ties to LSU and the state of Louisiana (he was an assistant for the New Orleans Saints for two seasons), Brady has been in the NFL for half a decade and seems destined for a head coaching gig in the pros. Brady has only coached at the college level for five seasons - 2013-2014 at his alma mater, William & Mary, 2015-2016 at Penn State, and 2019 at LSU.

These odds only pay a $20 profit on a winning $10 bet, making this the worst value on the board.

🦈 Lane Kiffin, HC, Ole Miss (+400)

Every upper SEC head coaching opening from now until he retires seems destined to include Lane Kiffin's name as a candidate. He's the favorite by the Florida next coach odds and likely will pop up as an Auburn candidate if Freeze is fired (the Tigers reportedly tried to hire him in 2023 and settled for Freeze). Plus, if Sark is interested in the NFL, as previously reported, Kiffin will definitely be on the shortlist for the Texas job.

But despite all this, I just don't see him leaving Oxford for LSU, or Florida for that matter - he's certainly not the best bet for either job. And at least he has ties to Florida that could in theory entice him to leave (he went 26-13 as FAU's head coach and his dad, Monte Kiffin, was a legendary defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).

For now, any rumors about Kiffin leaving for another SEC job seem like a play by him and super agent Jimmy Sexton to get him a massive extension at Ole Miss. And it doesn't hurt that he has the Rebels in College Football Playoff position after a 7-1 start this season.

But he does fit the bill of the splashy hire that Woodward covets so highly, so I can understand why these odds pay just a $40 profit on a $10 bet, I just wouldn't bet on him.

🦁 James Franklin, former Penn State HC (+600)

Given Woodward's love for hiring a major name, I can't imagine he's interested in hiring a recently fired head coach from a program many view below LSU on the totem pole. Just like the optics of Florida hiring James Franklin, I don't think the LSU brass would be overly excited about handing the coach who failed to deliver Penn State a championship millions of dollars.

Also factoring in Landry's likely involvement in the hire, Franklin just isn't going to move the needle for the governor. Before Kelly, the last three LSU head coaches all won national championships (Orgeron, Les Miles, Nick Saban), so hiring a guy who was fired for not being able to do so doesn't make a ton of sense.

That said, he's actually a safe hire given his track record of success in the SEC (24-15 at Vanderbilt) and at a major program (104-45 at Penn State). Still, Franklin seems destined for either the UCLA job or the Virginia Tech job at this point. So a $10 bet paying a $60 profit on him landing in Baton Rouge is a bad bet.

🧨 Could LSU hire Nick Saban or Jimbo Fisher?

There's no bigger pull for Woodward's ego than to bring back Saban, who won a national title at LSU in 2004 before leaving for the Miami Dolphins head coaching job and ultimately returning to college in 2007 at Alabama.

Saban's name is going to continue to be mentioned when there are blue blood SEC openings, but he seems content to stay retired from coaching and spend his Saturday's on College GameDay. Last week on "The Pat McAfee Show," Saban literally said, "I wanna stay retired," even if his wife, Miss Terry likes the idea of the size of these contracts.

The offensive coordinator for the greatest coach in college football history during that 2004 season at LSU was Fisher. Could he be interested?

I'm sure he is, but Woodard already wasted millions of dollars to hire him at Texas A&M, and left for LSU before Fisher's record-setting buyout had to be paid by Aggies boosters. And I can't think of a hire that would be more annoying to LSU fans following the firing of Kelly than to hire Fisher.

Fisher's odds (+1800) should be as long as Saban's (+7500), with both being terrible bets.

🦆 What about Dan Lanning?

Could a different Saban disciple end up leading LSU, though? Dan Lanning worked under Saban as an assistant at Alabama before following Kirby Smart to Georgia as defensive coordinator and landing the head coaching job at Oregon in 2022.

But like Kiffin, Lanning's name just seems to pop up for every major SEC job, even if he's unlikely to take it. And he's way more unlikely to leave Eugene than Kiffin is to leave Oxford. You could argue there's no better job in college football right now than Oregon, with the Ducks having billionaire Nike co-founder Phil Knight fully invested in turning this team into a champion. 

With a contract that pays him around $11 million per year, the Ducks set for a fourth straight double-digit win season under him, and Knight happily funding Oregon with a desire to win a championship, there's no way Lanning is leaving.

🎯 Best bet to be next LSU coach

🧩 Jon Sumrall, HC, Tulane (+150)

Though Sumrall might not be the classic eye-popping hire Woodward is known for chasing, he's the perfect fit for LSU, which is why he's the favorite. With SEC programs like Florida, Arkansas, and potentially Auburn likely to target Sumrall, LSU has a chance to make the right hire and keep him in state.

He has geographical ties as a former SEC assistant (Ole Miss, Kentucky), and he's been a head coach in Alabama (Troy) and is currently one in Louisiana at Tulane. He also wins a lot of dang games, with a 38-10 record and the Green Wave likely to be in contention for the Group of Six CFP spot this season.

Another interesting wrinkle is that the all-time winningest coach in LSU history, Charles "Cholly Mac" McClendon, also had ties to Kentucky, where Sumrall played and coached (McClendon played for Bear Bryant at Kentucky). That's going to play well with the old money boosters in Louisiana and Landry.

This is the hire LSU needs to make.

📜 LSU coaching history

Here's a look at the last 10 head coaches at LSU following Brian Kelly's dismissal on Sunday.