Dabo Swinney Got LSU Head Coach, Brian Kelly, Mixed Up With Former Florida Georgia Line Member, Brian Kelley, In Hilarious Story

Classic college-coach-country-artist mix up.

Believe it or not, we’re only a few weeks away from college football being back in season. I’m certainly excited to fire up my TV on a Saturday and do absolutely nothing while a full slate of college football games commences. But we still do have some offseason to get through before those beautiful, lazy Saturdays are actually here.

And one of those offseason days provided a Dabo Swinney story that’ll make you wonder how the Clemson head coach is considered one of the smartest coaching minds in the game.

Dabo Swinney has been the head coach of the Clemson Tigers since 2009. In the nearly 17 years that he’s been at the helm, he’s won plenty, and he’s told some hilarious stories during his time with the media. The one he told earlier today might be the one that tops them all, and it features a mix up between Florida Georgia Line and LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly.

Already see where I’m going with this?

Swinney was apparently on vacation down in Florida when his sister-in-law informed him that Brian Kelley’s wife had a store down close to where they were staying. Dabo, who likely thinks about college football 24/7, immediately thought she was talking about LSU head coach Brian Kelly… while she was actually referring to former Florida Georgia Line member Brian Kelley. What a difference one “E” can make, eh?

That’s where the confusion and hilarity began:

“My sister-in-law is saying, ‘Hey, Brian Kelley has a place, his wife has a gift shop right on the corner there in Grayton Beach.’ I’m like, ‘Oh really, that’s pretty cool.’ I had no idea. So we go there and I walk into the store. Me and Kathleen walk into the store, Kath buys something because she’s trying to support Mrs. Kelley, or whatever we’re doing.

I’m walking around and I go out and they’re like, ‘Yeah, he’s gonna have a concert in the back.’ I walk out the back, there’s a little stage with some fake grass (in a) small little area. It says, ‘Brian Kelley performing live on this day’ or whatever. I’m going, ‘Freaking A, Brian Kelly can sing and play? I didn’t know that.'”

Dabo was so surprised that one of his college coaching colleagues had this “secret life” as a performer that he started taking pictures of everything. Then he gathered it all up with a text message and sent it to Brian Kelly – the LSU head coach.

By the time he found out there’s another Brian Kelley, it was too late:

“I send all this to Brian Kelly. Then, the guy who was with my brother, he walks over because Kath said something (like), ‘I just can’t believe that Brian Kelly is playing, this is really cool. You know we play them in the opener?’ to the guy and he’s like, ‘What?’ As it turns out, there’s another Brian Kelley.”

Yes Dabo, there is another Brain Kelley.

This is the Brian Kelley’s whose wife owns a gift shop on the corner in Grayton Beach:

And this is the Brian Kelly who Dabo thought everyone was talking about the entire time:

Same name, big difference.

The good thing is that Dabo Swinney got everything squared away eventually. He went on to say that LSU head coach texted him back saying, “Just can’t get away from Brian Kelly” or something of that nature, probably trying to be as polite as possible while also being equally confused as to why Dabo would send him those texts and pictures.

The Clemson coach swears that he’s heard Florida Georgia Line’s music, but just wasn’t aware that Brian Kelley was formerly a member of that group. And Dabo says that he hasn’t cleared up the story with Brian Kelly (no “E”) until the very moment he spoke about it in the press conference:

“I’ve even heard their songs, but I don’t know all these people’s names. I have no clue. Kathleen goes, ‘Babe, it’s the Brian Kelley that’s a singer for Florida Georgia Line.’ And I went, ‘What? I’ve done fired off all these pictures to Brian Kelly.’ He’s probably over there going, ‘What the hell? This guy’s an idiot. What is this guy doing?’ He doesn’t know this, he’ll know this now.”

They’ll have plenty of time to talk it over and laugh about it all when the Clemson Tigers and the LSU Tigers help kick off the college football season on August 30. It’ll be a high-stakes matchup right off the bat, and until then, you can pass the time by listening to this Dabo Swinney story over and over (and over) again: