Lane Kiffin Did Not Come To LSU All For The Money, Says Athletic Director Verge Ausberry

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU made the most expensive hire of a football coach after last season with Lane Kiffin, formerly Ole Miss’ head coach, at $91 million over seven years and $13 million a year.

But LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry, who made the hire, said LSU’s contract is no more than what Florida or Florida State would have paid Kiffin had he taken one of those jobs, or if he would have remained at Ole Miss.

“We didn’t pay any more money that anybody else would have,” Ausberry said on Tyrann Mathieu’s “In The Bayou” podcast last week. “Lane contract was the same as Florida and Florida State or if he was staying at Ole Miss.”

After missing on Kiffin, Florida hired Tulane coach Jon Sumrall for less at $44.7 million over six years and $7.45 million a year. Florida State decided to keep its coach – Mike Norvell, who is making $10 million a year through 2031.

It’s over. Lane Kiffin is LSU’s next football coach. Press conference introducing him set for Monday at LSU.https://t.co/kTRsVE78Of

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 30, 2025

“Money wasn’t it,” Ausberry said. “We had to sell ourselves on, ‘Why come to LSU?’ It wasn’t all about the money.”

One of the best parts of Ausberry’s interview with Mathieu, a superstar defensive back for the Tigers in their 13-0 Southeastern Conference championship season in 2011, was his description of his first meeting with Mathieu back in 2010 when he was an incoming freshman.

Mathieu won the Chuck Bednarik Award in 2011 that goes to the nation’s best defensive player, but Ausberry was not impressed with the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Mathieu as a true freshman in 2010 out of St. Augustine High in New Orleans. Then-assistant coach and recruiting ace Frank Wilson introduced Mathieu as “one of the best players in our recruiting class” to Ausberry.

“And I’m looking around, and I’m looking and I’m saying to myself, ‘What position? Manager? Trainer? Football?’ My face kind of changed,” Ausberry said. “I said, ‘Nice to meet you son.'”

Then he grabbed Wilson and said they needed to take a walk.

“You know Frank, that little boy’s going to get us fired,” Ausberry told Wilson. “We laugh about that.”

Mathieu proved Ausberry and many wrong, including Alabama coach Nick Saban, who was not interested in him out of high school.

“You became a player that can say, ‘I’m going to take control of this game,’ and did it,” Ausberry told Mathieu, who played 12 seasons in the NFL, won a Super Bowl with Kansas City and was a three-time first team All-Pro.