GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
New LSU president Wade Rousse wasted no time in making his first decision on his first official day on the job Tuesday.
1st, LSU had the Dalton & James Gang at running back in the 1980s – D.Hilliard and Garry J. Now, it’s the Dalton & Rousse Gang assuming campus leadership. But no one knows who gets the house yet. @ByPiperHutch https://t.co/tq4toIGKAy
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 4, 2025
Rousse announced that interim athletic director Verge Ausberry, as of last Thursday, is now athletic director Verge Ausberry.
This will make Ausberry’s first job as athletic director much smoother. Ausberry, who has been LSU’s deputy athletic director since 2019 and has worked in various capacities in the department since 1991, was named interim athletic director last Thursday after the firing of athletic director Scott Woodward.
LSU's new president Wade Rousse has made the decision to elevate Verge Ausberry as permanent, full-time athletic director, sources tell @YahooSports. A formal announcement is expected in the coming days.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 5, 2025
Ausberry, 58, was also on Thursday given full authority on the search for a new football coach to replace Brian Kelly, whom Woodward fired after four non-playoff seasons on Sunday, Oct. 26. But Ausberry found himself being asked by prospective head coaches and/or their agents in recent days, “Who will be the athletic director?”
Now, he can tell all candidates and agents he will be the athletic director. And more than anyone else, he is the search, as former LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said during the process that landed Ed Orgeron as coach in 2015.
Nick Saban is not coming Back, Shaq:https://t.co/aRGo6Q0CTN
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 4, 2025
Ausberry is currently involved in his fifth football coaching search at LSU with each role more significant than the previous. He was a minor assistant to LSU chancellor Mark Emmert’s search and hiring of Nick Saban from Michigan State in 1999 along with then-Board of Supervisors members Stanley Jacobs and Charlie Weems and outgoing athletic director Joe Dean.
In 2004, Ausberry assisted athletic director Skip Bertman, who was named athletic director in 2000 to replace Dean before taking over full time in 2001 after his final season as baseball coach, in the hiring of Oklahoma State coach Les Miles to replace Saban.
Ausberry was more heavily involved under Alleva in the hiring of Orgeron after the 2015 regular season. Orgeron had been named interim coach after four games into the ’15 season when Miles was fired. And Ausberry aided Woodward in the hiring of Kelly after the 2021 season to replace the fired Orgeron.
Rousse’s decision to promote Ausberry ends the possible candidacy of Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks for the job. Brooks, and LSU graduate from Hammond, strangely tweeted last week that he was taking his name out of the hat for the LSU athletic director job, even though Brooks said he was not contacted for the job. And he wasn’t.
Thanks, Josh, I would also like to take my name out of the hat for any MLB openings at Sports Illustrated, though I have also not been called.
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 31, 2025
Ausberry joined the LSU athletic department in 1991 as an intern in the compliance office. Over the course of his 30-plus year career, he served the Tigers in areas including academics, fundraising, corporate relations, marketing, game management, sport administration, life skills, sports medicine and performance, equipment and alumni relations, LSU’s release said.
In 2019, he was promoted to the role of Executive Deputy Athletic Director, as well as Executive Director of External Relations. In the latter role, he assists the Office of the President in external and governmental relations.
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