LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward Will NOT Hire Tigers’ Next Football Coach, Says Governor Jeff Landry

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

The LSU football team is off this week because of an open date Saturday.

But LSU Political Football continued Wednesday at the State Capitol as Republican Governor Jeff Landry benched Democrat LSU athletic director Scott Woodward from picking the next LSU football coach and selected his starting lineup for that.

“No, I can tell you right now, Scott Woodward will not be selecting the next coach. Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select him before I let him (Woodward) do it,” Landry said of LSU’s football head coach vacancy at a press conference scheduled to discuss Louisiana paying for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) amid President Trump’s federal government shutdown.

But questions soon turned from that to football with Woodward firing LSU coach Brian Kelly on Sunday and replacing him on an interim basis with assistant Frank Wilson. Woodward had hired Kelly away from Notre Dame after the 2021 season for $100 million over 10 years. He fired him for cause less than four years in, which will require from LSU and/or its donors a $52.3 million buyout to Kelly, according to a contract Landry called “terrible.”

Should Scott Woodward really be allowed to hire LSU’s next football coach, considering his track record in that sport? Column:https://t.co/cSU7rTItlS

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 18, 2025

LSU, with or without donor support, has never paid that large of a buyout for a coach in its history. It will be the second largest buyout paid in college football history at that total.

Brian Kelly has been fired by LSU, but in his mind, the $52 million buyout is not negotiable.https://t.co/ncaaS9smm0

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 27, 2025

Woodward, though, has said LSU is trying to negotiate the buyout down.

Woodward is also responsible for the largest buyout to a college football coach in history at $75 million to fired Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher. Woodward hired Fisher after the 2017 season when Woodward was A&M’s athletic director for $75 million a year for 10 years. Fisher was fired after the 2023 season, and is still collecting on his buyout that was at $75 million at the time of his dismissal – a buyout that was in Woodward’s original contract for Fisher through 2027.

“I’m not going to pick the next coach. But I can promise you, we’re going to pick a coach, and we’ll make sure he’s compensated properly. We’ll put metrics on him. Because I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country. And making taxpayers foot the bill.” La. Gov. Jeff Landry pic.twitter.com/AymRLuyJHb

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 29, 2025

“The Board of Supervisors is going to come up with a committee, and they’re going to go find us a coach,” said Landry, who as governor selects the Board members and oversees the Board.

“Well then, I better get to it,” LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard told reporters Wednesday after a meeting in which three finalists were named for LSU’s vacant presidency.

Landry may need to get more organized quickly if his hand-picked Board is going to find a new LSU football coach, because Ballard did not know until Wednesday that his Board would be in charge of the search.

“No, I didn’t know that,” Ballard told WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge Wednesday after the meeting about the new LSU president search. “Next steps are we’re going to go hire the best coach for Louisiana State University, I promise you. Go Tigers.”

Landry assured that he would not replace Woodward in the coaching search.

“I’m not going to be picking the next coach,” he said. “But I can promise you, we’re going to pick a coach, and we’re going to make sure that that coach is successful. And we’re going to make sure that he’s compensated properly, and we’re going to put metrics on him, because I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country. And then making the taxpayers foot the bill.”

Major donors usually pay much of college football coaching salaries and for buyouts at major programs like LSU. An unidentified LSU donor told WDSU-TV in New Orleans this week that he would take care of Kelly’s buyout.

Sources: One major donor set to fund lion's share of Brian Kelly's buyout | Click on the image to read the full story https://t.co/RfRUrVbTz5

— wdsu (@wdsu) October 27, 2025

But that much donor money could be used for a new LSU coach or for Name, Image & Likeness payments to players and for attracting players via the popular NCAA Transfer Portal money – had a more fiscally responsible buyout been ironed out by Woodward in Kelly’s contract.

“When you’re not fiscally responsible,” Landry had just said regarding his state’s budgeting, “when you don’t understand how to ensure that you have money for a rainy day, then you can’t act when it rains.”

It’s raining hard at LSU, but Woodward apparently still is getting donor-cash rain.

And Woodward has had large buyouts previously at LSU. He let former football coach Ed Orgeron walk away with an $18 million buyout after he got fired in the 2021 season – two years removed from the 2019 national championship. But Orgeron, a Larose native who grew up loving nearby LSU, did not need to be enticed to stay at LSU the way Kelly and his agent likely demanded a large contract, considering Kelly’s record at Notre Dame and that he came to LSU as the winningest active college coach in the country. LSU, on the other hand, was always Orgeron’s dream job.

Tiger Rag asked for comment from Woodward via LSU athletic department communications director Zach Greenwell shortly after Landry’s statements, but neither Woodward nor Greenwell immediately responded.

Landry confirmed previous reports that he held a meeting with LSU officials and board members at the Governor’s Mansion on Sunday to discuss Kelly’s firing, but not to fire him, as some media reports characterized.

“I hosted a meeting at the Governor’s Mansion to talk about the legalities of the contract, to talk about the cost, to talk about who pays for it, to talk about what’s the effect of it,” Landry said. “It was a meeting to discuss the legalities of the contract. And look, I have no animosity against Brian Kelly. But it had gotten to the point, and I think they (LSU officials) realized that the spirit of the team needed a change. And so that change was made. And we’re going to move on.”

Woodward said in an LSU release on Sunday that he fired Kelly on Sunday after making up his mind in light of the No. 20 Tigers losing, 49-25, at home to No. 3 Texas A&M on Saturday night in embarrassing fashion. The Aggies outscored LSU, 35-7, in the third quarter.

The loss dropped then-No. 20 LSU (5-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) from the national rankings for the first time so in a season since Kelly’s first year in 2022 and out of the College Football Playoff, which Kelly has missed in all four of his seasons. That despite high expectation the last three years with preseason rankings of No. 5, 13 and 9.

“He was trying his hardest to the end, and we were trying.”
-Current LSU football player, who asked not to be identified, on last meeting with fired coach Brian Kelly. @andrechampagnee https://t.co/jpOAGA6rB4

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 27, 2025

“Look, my role is about the fiscal effect of firing a coach under a terrible contract,” Landry said of Kelly’s salary and buyout.

When asked if he would make sure the next coach’s contract is not “terrible” like Kelly’s, Landry said, “Absolutely correct. We are not going down a failed path. Let me tell you something. This is a pattern. The guy that’s here now (Woodward) who wrote that contract? He cost Texas A&M $70 something million dollars.”

Landry was referring to when Woodward was Texas A&M’s athletic director in 2017 and hired Fisher, who had won the national championship at Florida State. When Woodward left A&M for LSU in 2019, he left A&M – and its donors – with the Fisher contract bill. Fisher got a four-year contract extension through 2031 from Woodward’s replacement at A&M, athletic director Ross Bjork, after Fisher went 9-1 in the 2020 season. But when Fisher was fired after the 2023 season, he walked away with a $75 million buyout, largely because of Woodward’s original deal with Fisher that was through the 2027 season.

And Texas A&M went significantly cheaper with its next hire – former Duke coach Mike Elko at $42 million over six years instead of $75 million over 10 years and with a much smaller buyout. And Elko has the No. 3 Aggies at 8-0 overall (5-0 in the SEC) and likely playoff bound. That’s the “fiscally responsible” type hire Landry wants – not another Woodward buyout blunder – regardless of what donor may pay for Woodward’s wayward spending.

“Right now, we’ve got a $53 million liability,” Landry said, referring to Kelly’s buyout. “We are not doing that again. And you know what, I believe, that we will find a great coach. Maybe we’ll let President Trump pick one. He knows winners.”

At the Sunday meeting with LSU officials, Landry said he also touched on LSU’s athletic department deciding to raise season ticket prices in 2026. Woodward’s office released that news last Friday – the day before the Tigers lost to Texas A&M.

“I was also not happy with the fact that we were raising while we were having a losing season,” Landry said. “And we were paying a coach $100 million dollars, and we’re not getting the results.”