3 most overrated SEC football coaches ahead of 2024

1. Brian Kelly, LSU

Am I a hater for this? Probably, but you could say that about this entire list. I've always been lower on Brian Kelly than most people, dating back to his Notre Dame days, but I just don't think he's as good as most people give him credit for.

Kelly is widely considered to be the second-best head coach in the SEC now that Nick Saban has retired, right behind Kirby Smart. I'm not sure that I can agree with that.

Hot take: I think Lane Kiffin is the conference's best coach not named Kirby Smart.

Kelly was an elite coach at the Division II level before taking over at Central Michigan and then Cincinnati. He did well enough to get hired by Notre Dame where he took the Irish to a national title game (which was eventually vacated) but got exposed when they played Alabama. They were just clearly not on the same level as the Tide and Notre Dame was unable to make it back -- he did make four more New Year's Six bowls, going 0-3 and then leaving for LSU before the Fiesta Bowl in 2021.

In two seasons with LSU, Kelly is 20-7 which isn't bad, but he had a Heisman-winning quarterback this past year and couldn't piece together a good enough defense to go better than 10-3. Even a slightly above average defense would have likely led the Tigers to the playoff.

I feel like Kelly always struggles on the biggest stages and that has been a problem for his entire career and it's one of the main reasons I believe he's vastly overrated.