LSU is widely expected to announce Brian Kelly hire this week

Notre Dame could be looking for a new football coach as early as Tuesday, according to reports.

Yahoo!’s Pete Thamel is reporting that Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly could be announced as LSU’s next head coach on Tuesday. The Tigers fired Ed Orgeron earlier this season, just two years after he won a National Championship.

That report has been confirmed by The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy and ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.

This would end a 12-year run at Notre Dame for Kelly. He’s been with the Fighting Irish since 2010 and is their winningest coach in program history.

According to The Athletic’s Matt Fortuna, others around the Notre Dame program are “blindsided.”

This move is especially unusual because the Fighting Irish are still in contention for a College Football Playoff berth. Notre Dame could be ranked as high as No. 5 when the updated rankings are released on Tuesday night.

Kelly has spent the last couple weeks talking up Notre Dame’s résumé as a Playoff contender. He’s led the team to an 11-1 campaign and five straight seasons of 10+ wins.

Just last week, Kelly implied it would take an offer of “$250 million” to get him to take another college job. At the time, he was thought to be a candidate for USC’s vacancy.

Potential candidates to replace Kelly could include defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell and Iowa State coach Matt Campbell.