The posturing over Brian Kelly’s $54 million buyout from LSU is over, sources told ESPN, as the school sent him a letter Wednesday saying it is officially firing him without cause.
This means LSU is set to owe Kelly the $54 million remaining on his contract.
LSU initially relieved Kelly of his duties Oct. 26 and made clear in public statements that the dismissal was related to his performance. But in the weeks that followed, LSU left some ambiguity over the nature of the firing in the wake of pointed comments from Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
On Wednesday night, new LSU president Wade Rousse sent a signed letter that reiterated what is clear in Kelly’s contract. He’ll be owed the liquidated damages from his contract, and there is an onus on Kelly for the six years remaining on the deal to make «good-faith, reasonable, and sustained efforts to obtain qualifying employment for as long as liquidated damages are due.»
filed a petition for a declaratory judgement regarding his firing.
In that legal filing, Kelly’s lawyers said that unspecified LSU officials had informed Kelly’s camp that he had not been «formally terminated.»
The attorneys pushed back on three items they claimed LSU officials raised — the notion that Kelly hadn’t been terminated, that Woodward didn’t have the authority to fire him and that there were any grounds for termination with cause.
If LSU had attempted to seemingly reverse course from its initial public statements and attempt to fire Kelly for cause, the filing lays out the ways the school failed to handle that properly according to the procedures in his contract.
The ruling comes on the cusp of a critical juncture in LSU’s courtship of Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who is expected to announce his decision this weekend.
While Landry railed against the amount of guaranteed money owed to Kelly — «We are not doing that again» — LSU appears prepared to guarantee a large amount of money to Kiffin, if he decides to leave Ole Miss.
Since Kelly’s exit, LSU brought in Rousse as president and promoted Verge Ausberry to athletic director.
Kelly has expressed a desire to return to coaching next year.
