By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
LSU assistant coach Gary Redus II will not finish the year off with the Tigers and instead head straight to New Brunswick to begin building his new program at Rutgers.
Head coach Kim Mulkey made her weekly appearance Wednesday on the “Off The Bench” radio show with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn on 104.5 ESPN Baton Rouge, where she addressed Redus’ new opportunity.
Mulkey said she is extremely happy for Redus and encouraged him to begin building his new program right away.
“I just know that he has an opportunity to go at a young age and do things and he will work his rear end off and try to improve that program,” Mulkey said Wednesday on “Off The Bench.” “And so I told him, ‘You can’t be married to two wives.’ I said get out of here, go to work. Get your staff in place. Get your kids that are over there to stay and he hasn’t even visited Rutgers. He took the job over the phone and I know his love for our program, he’d want to be on the bench with us too, but as a mentor, I can’t be selfish and ask him to stay with our team when this could be a long three or four week process with the playoffs.”
Mulkey also hinted that Redus could potentially bring another LSU assistant with him.
“He’s going to get after it at Rutgers and he could take one of our coaches, like coach Daphne (Mitchell),” Mulkey said. “His wife is best friends with coach Daphne. They played at Georgia Tech together, they were roommates, and if he does, I’ll be happy for her as well.”
Mitchell has worked alongside Mulkey for 11 years. She spent six seasons with Mulkey at Baylor before joining her in Baton Rouge. Mitchell currently coaches the post players and assists with scouting opponents while also playing a key role in LSU’s recruiting efforts.
Even though she could end up in New Jersey with Redus, Mitchell was at practice on Wednesday.
With Redus’ departure, Mulkey will have to find another recruiter. It’s the second straight LSU recruiter to land a head coaching position, as Mulkey’s former assistant Sytia Messer was previously hired as the head coach at UCF in April of 2022.
“I told somebody the other day, I said, my last two recruiters got head jobs. I feel like Nick Saban,” Mulkey said. “But that’s okay. That’s respect and that is preparing the future of our game and it just makes me have to get on the phone a little more right now and try to hire somebody to replace him and if I have to hire two I will. I hope I don’t, but if I have to I will and we’ll keep keeping on.”
Even though she is happy for Redus, Mulkey said she wishes the NCAA calendar had more structure so coaches could finish out their commitments before moving on.
“I’m not used to all of this happening during the season,” Mulkey said. “I’ve watched it play itself out in all sports and until you have some parameters on when you can hire coaches, this is going to continue to happen because these institutions are looking out for themselves. If their season’s over, why should I have to wait until LSU’s season is over to hire somebody? So, that is different for me. I’ve never had this happen before where a coach was taken during the tournament.”
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