LSU fired its football coach and lost its athletic director in a week. What’s going on?

LSU fired football coach Brian Kelly earlier this week, and four days later, the man who did it, athletic director Scott Woodward, was gone, too. Both moves appeared to have heavy influence from Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and prompted the school to insist Friday that everything is business as usual.

What happened?

LSU fired Kelly last Sunday, a day after a home loss to Texas A&M dropped the Tigers to 5-3 overall and 2-3 in the Southeastern Conference after the team was once ranked No. 3. It all but eliminated LSU from the league’s championship game much less any hope of making the College Football Playoff that awards the national title.

Kelly, 64, is a highly respected coach hired from Notre Dame, and he was in the fourth season of a 10-year contract worth about $100 million with a buyout around $53 million. The fit was awkward in Louisiana, where the Massachusetts native raised eyebrows early on by using a Southern drawl, but the biggest issue was on the field: Kelly’s record was 34-14 with the Tigers, with no trips to the CFP.

Then what?

Schools firing football coaches in the middle of the season is no longer unusual; Kelly in fact, was the 12th to be let go this year in the Bowl Subdivision alone, moves that add up to more than $100 million in buyout money for the fired coaches.

What happened at LSU is on another level.

Three days after the firing, Landry said he intended to prevent Woodward from hiring the next coach and criticized the athletic director’s history of contract deals with coaches at both Texas A&M and LSU, which is Woodward’s alma mater. The day after that, Woodward was gone.

NCAA championships LSU won during Woodward’s tenure included baseball (twice), football, women’s basketball, men’s outdoor track and field, and gymnastics.

“Others can recap or opine on my tenure and on my decisions over the last six years as director of athletics, but I will not,” Woodward said to fans in a public letter. “Rather, I will focus on the absolute joy that LSU athletics brings to our state’s residents and to the Baton Rouge community.”

Why is the governor involved?

This isn’t the first time a Louisiana governor got involved in college football.

Political figures have been intertwined with the state’s flagship football program for nearly a hundred years, with maybe the most notable being former Gov. Huey Long. Also serving as a U.S. Senator, Long often insisted on calling plays during LSU games. He also would lead the band onto the field, argue with officials and deliver pregame speeches to the team.

Landry’s public takedown of the school’s top athletic administrator was much different.

Landry specifically pointed to Woodward’s history with hefty contracts, which includes the massive deal given to Kelly, a $17 million buyout for former coach Ed Orgeron and, somewhat inaccurately, a $77 million buyout of former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, where Woodward once was the athletic director; he had been at LSU for two years when A&M, in 2021, gave Fisher a contract extension that effectively doubled the cost of his buyout.

Even more confusing, LSU’s athletic department has historically been self-funding and does not tap into public money. In the case of Kelly’s contract, unidentified private donors have pledged to cover the cost of the buyout.

Still, said Landry: “If big billionaires want to spend all that kind of money, no problem. But if I’ve got to go find $53 million … it’s not going to be a pleasant conversation.”

What happens now?

A coaching search for Kelly’s replacement is under way, although the latest political dealings could affect the process. Interim athletic director Verge Ausberry tried Friday to assure Tigers fans that Woodward’s departure was not a sign of dysfunction.

“We have championship coaches here. This place is not broken,” Ausberry said. “The athletic department is not broken. We win.”

Ausberry said a search committee, including members of LSU’s Board of Supervisors, would find Kelly’s replacement. Board chairman Scott Ballard made clear that Ausberry has the authority to hire the next coach.

The governor suggested the next contract for a football coach should feature more performance-based incentives and fewer long-term guarantees, which would not necessarily lower a big buyout. Ausberry said the board’s instructions to him are to “get the best football coach there is and don’t worry about that at all.”

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