Ad Disclosure
Brian Kelly’s staff is slowly coming together.
The new LSU coach is expected, per reports, to bring his special teams coordinator from Notre Dame with him to Baton Rouge. He’s also expected to hire Notre Dame’s co-director of strength and conditioning to run his strength staff at LSU as well as bring a former ND intern to LSU to serve as a strength coach on staff.
The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman reported Tuesday that Brian Polian is joining Kelly as LSU’s new special teams coordinator.
SOURCE: Notre Dame special teams coordinator Brian Polian is expected to join Brian Kelly’s staff at LSU. Polian has SEC coaching experience from his time as STC at Texas A&M.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 7, 2021
Polian has done a bit of everything over the course of a long coaching career. He’s been a running backs coach, a tight ends coach, a safeties coach, a linebackers coach, a special teams coordinator, a recruiting coordinator, and a head coach (Nevada, 2013-16). He has served as Notre Dame’s special teams coordinator since 2017. During that time, the Irish have ranked 69th (2017), 42nd, 50th, 54th, and 34th (2021) in FootballOutsiders’ special teams efficiency metric.
The Athletic’s Brody Miller reported Tuesday morning that Jacob Flint will be following Kelly to LSU to run his strength staff.
Brian Kelly is expected to hire Notre Dame co-director of strength and conditioning Jacob Flint to run the department at #LSU, sources confirm to @TheAthletic, replacing Tommy Moffitt.
Flint played for Kelly at Central Michigan and has worked for him at Cincy and Notre Dame.
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) December 7, 2021
Miller also reported that Zaviar Gooden, a former assistant on USC’s strength and conditioning staff, will join Flint’s staff at LSU.
Zaviar Gooden, assistant football sports performance coach at USC and a former Mizzou linebacker, is expected to be a strength coach on Flint’s staff, per a source, which @ChrisGordy reported earlier today. Gooden also interned at Notre Dame in spring 2018. #LSU
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) December 7, 2021
Gooden is wrapping up his first year with the Trojans. He was named an assistant strength coach in January of 2021. Prior to that, the 30-year-old was the head sports and fitness trainer at CRA-Z Sports Training in the Texas DFW area (2019-20) and spent part of 2018 and 2019 as a speed and performance coach at D1 Sports Training in Dallas/Fort Worth. He was a volunteer assistant strength coach at SMU during the summer of 2018. Gooden played linebacker in the NFL for 5 years (2013-17).
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
