Browner grass

 LSU fired Brian Kelly yesterday, four years after Brian Kelly fired Notre Dame because ... well, because money is the loudmouth in big-boy college athletics these days, and also because ego sometimes gets the best of a man in that sort of environment.

I'm not going to say that's why Kelly shunned the Golden Dome for the Geauxlden Dome, although it sure felt like it. But I am going to say there's a whole lot of new believers in karma this morning in South Bend.

That's because Kelly left N.D. without a backward glance after a decade in which he became the school's all-time winningest coach and got the Fighting Irish almost-but-not-quite back to No. 1. Whether he figured he never could get them all the way there, and therefore decided it was time to flee the premises for somewhere he (supposedly) could, only he will ever know for sure.

Although, again, that's what it felt like.

In any case, this morning he's unemployed, after getting LSU less close to the Big Trophy than he got Notre Dame. He did, after all, get the Irish to the national title game once, only to get squashed by Alabama. But in a shade less than four years in Baton Rouge, he never even got the Tigers to the College Football Playoff.

He showed up with a phony cornpone accent and a pile of distinctly un-phony cash, and the kind of resources he apparently felt Notre Dame couldn't provide despite its mighty lore. He leaves with one SEC West title, a 34-14 record and far too many losses in the sort of big-time games he was being paid so handsomely to win.

Last season, for instance, Kelly's legions were hammered in succession by Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida in succession, losing by 16, 29 and 11, respectively. This season, they're 5-3 and 2-3 in the SEC after being picked in the preseason to win the conference. 

The final blow, as it were, was delivered Saturday by A&M, who marched into Baton Rouge -- an alleged torture chamber for visitors -- and ball-peened the Tigers 49-25, outscoring LSU 35-7 in the second half. 

And Notre Dame?

Well, the program Kelly allegedly felt was holding him back reached the national title game last year in Marcus Freeman's third year at the helm. Freeman is now 38-11 in three-and-a-half seasons and 29-7 in the last two-and-a-half, and he's 4-0 in bowl games.

So far this year, Notre Dame is 5-2 and has won five straight after starting the season with losses to Miami and A&M by a total of five points. The Hurricanes are 6-1 and ranked 10th; A&M is 7-0 and ranked third. 

The Irish, meanwhile, are back up to 12th this week, and there's not a whole lot left in front of them. Seems pretty clear it would take a seismic upset in the next month to keep them from being in the CFP for the second straight year.

If so, Kelly will be at home, watching it on TV. And wondering, perhaps, why all that brown grass always looks so damn green from the far side of the fence.