The Daily Nole

FSU’s Charles Kelly in Elite Company Over Last Three Years?

Perrone Ford/FSU athletics

Don’t look now, but Florida State defensive coordinator Charles Kelly is running yet another top 25 defense.

Kelly hasn’t been the most popular guy in Tallahassee throughout the course of this season and his 4-year tenure as the team’s defensive coordinator is sure to end. When you look at the numbers for Kelly however, they surprisingly aren’t bad.

After holding a statistically high-powered Louisiana-Monroe offense to just 10 points and 300 yards in a 42-10 FSU victory last Saturday, Kelly now has a defense that ranks in the top 25 in total defense. If the defensive numbers stay the same as they are now, FSU will be one of just nine teams to rank in the top 25 nationally in total defense over the last three years.

Of those nine teams, Kelly is one of only two defensive coordinators who have been in that position at that school over that period of time. The other is Clemson’s Brent Venables. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that other productive defensive coordinators over that time frame such as Kirby Smart, D.J. Durkin and Don Brown went on to get jobs at better schools or as head coaches.

Before anyone blows their tops regarding this as praise for Kelly, it is worth noting that in the three years prior to him taking over as defensive coordinator, FSU ranked third, second and fourth, respectively in total defense under Jeremy Pruitt and Mark Stoops.

In Kelly’s first year as defensive coordinator in 2014, FSU ranked just 63rd in total defense after finishing third and first in scoring defense the year before. This was with a defense that had four players declare early for the draft and be selected in the first three rounds, not to mention being stocked with talented young players like defensive back Jalen Ramsey and future Consensus All-American, DeMarcus Walker.

Over the last three seasons, Kelly’s defenses have ranked 19th, 22nd and currently 24th. While those numbers are far from horrendous, it’s widely accepted — and justified to believe — that Kelly never maximized all the talent that he had on the defensive side of the ball.

It’s also worth noting that Kelly’s defenses have peaked late in the last two years against inferior offenses like Boston College, Syracuse and Florida last season and against Delaware State and Florida this year.

For Kelly’s detractors — and there are many — there’s no reason not to believe that his tenure in Tallahassee is coming to an end. It’s already been reported that Jim Leavitt will follow new head coach Willie Taggart to FSU to fill the role of defensive coordinator. While that is cause for optimism, it should be noted that by most’s standards, Kelly’s defenses at FSU were good; they just never lived up to the lofty standards set by great Seminole defenses before them.

But for all his faults, including the inability to get off the field on 3rd-and-long and allowing scores of 59 to Oregon, 63 to Louisville and 41 to North Carolina State, Kelly was obviously well-respected by his players as a person and a coach. The fact that he continues to actively recruit for FSU despite his lame duck status speaks volumes about his character. As the program goes in a new direction, those things should not be forgotten.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson

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