Brian Kelly is heading into the broadcast booth this Saturday, making his CBS Sports game analyst debut for Jacksonville State and North Dakota State after two decades on the sideline. The former LSU coach is also joining SiriusXM College Sports Radio this season, adding a weekly studio role to a career that has now moved sharply from coaching to media.
The timing makes the shift easy to track. Kelly's new SiriusXM show begins Sept. 1, with new episodes set for every Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. ET, while Danny Kanell and Roy Philpott continue their daily weekday show from 6 to 9 a.m. ET. CBS Sports is pairing that studio work with a first game assignment this Saturday on CBS Sports Network, giving Kelly a public debut in a role that asks him to explain the game rather than manage it.
Kelly spent 22 straight years running college football programs before last November, a run that included Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU. He became the winningest coach in Notre Dame history along the way. In his new SiriusXM role, he will co-host with Danny Kanell and Roy Philpott, two names already familiar to listeners of SiriusXM and CBS Sports coverage.
Kelly said he is excited to bring what he learned on the sidelines into the studio with the SiriusXM team, and he described Danny and Roy as pros with the energy and passion for the game he shares. He said he looks forward to giving fans an insider's view of today's game and the teams and players they are watching each week. That is a neat pitch for a former coach, but it also comes after LSU parted ways with him about one year ago, turning what might have been a late-career transition into a quick reset.
The move now gives CBS Sports and SiriusXM a coach with recent, high-level experience and a name that carries weight across college football. What CBS Sports and SiriusXM see in Kelly is clear enough from the assignment itself: a coach who spent 22 straight years inside the sport, knows the weekly rhythm of the season, and can speak to the decisions that shape it. This Saturday, viewers will see whether that translates as smoothly to Jacksonville State and North Dakota State as it has to the sideline.
