The college football season starts this week, and national title talk is already turning heads. Brian Kelly is making those calls not from a sideline but from the studio now. His first big pick skipped both schools he used to coach.

Kelly joined CBS Sports as a studio analyst after LSU fired him in October 2025. This is his first season off the sideline in 22 years. “I’m putting my stock on Ohio State,” Kelly said. The panel was picking a national champion, and Kelly had no reason to stay loyal to old programs.

“A veteran quarterback coming back, Julian Sayin. I love their defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia. I think they are a seasoned team, been there, done that. They play really well later in the season. We saw how they ran the table,” Kelly added.

Ohio State enters the 2026 campaign ranked No. 1 in both the AP and Coaches polls. Quarterback Julian Sayin is back after a Heisman-finalist year. Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith is back too. Kelly separately named Smith his preseason Heisman favorite. 

The roster itself makes the pick more interesting. Ryan Day has said the team has around 50 new players. New pieces include receivers Devin McCuin and Kyle Parker, defensive backs Earl Little Jr. and Terry Moore. However, Carnell Tate, Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs are gone.

The schedule is the obvious problem. Ohio State must go on the road at Texas, Indiana, Iowa, and USC while hosting Oregon and Michigan. The Buckeyes closed the last campaign with losses to Indiana in the Big Ten title game and Miami in the Cotton Bowl. 

The timing of the pick is part of a larger media reset. Kelly also works with SiriusXM with Danny Kanell and Roy Philpott. He has discussed LSU’s new expectations under Lane Kiffin more than his own firing. The Ohio State call is one of his first public stands after leaving the sideline.

Why the LSU exit makes the Ohio State pick stand out

LSU fired Kelly without cause after a 49-25 home loss to Texas A&M dropped the Tigers to 5-3. Athletic director Scott Woodward said “the success at the level that LSU demands simply did not materialize.” Three losses in four games, last-place SEC rushing numbers, and a public clash over offensive coordinator Joe Sloan all piled up. 

Kelly finished 34-14 overall and 19-10 in SEC play at LSU. The first two seasons produced 10-win campaigns, an SEC West title, and Jayden Daniels’ 2023 Heisman. He never reached the College Football Playoff. Kelly later said he was “totally fine” with the decision and called the coaching world “the big poker table.”

The former LSU head coach started his coaching career at Grand Valley State and won two Division II titles with them. With Central Michigan, he went 19-16. Then, at Cincinnati, he finished 34-6 and turned them into a BCS-bowl team.

Notre Dame followed, and Kelly’s record there was 113-40. That made him the coach with the most wins in Notre Dame’s history. The Irish reached the 2012 BCS title game and made the College Football Playoff in the year 2018 and 2020. After an 11-1 regular season in 2021, he left for the Tigers.

Notre Dame completed their 2025 season with a 10-2 record and was knocked out of the CFP even after a 10-game winning streak. Marcus Freeman, the former head coach, has called 2026 the “Leave No Doubt” season after both Jeremiyah Love and JaDarian Price left as first-round NFL picks.

Talking about LSU, they went 7-6 in 2025, and Kelly was 5-3 before interim Frank Wilson finished the rest of the season. Kiffin takes over this year.

While LSU is coming into the new season with the national championship expectation, there are other programs that are more favored at this point. Even within the SEC, Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Texas A&M were ranked higher than the Tigers in the preseason AP Poll. Among the rest, Oregon, Ohio State and Notre Dame are being considered as contenders.