LSU Football Interim Coach Frank Wilson Preaches “Fun,” In The “Midst Of Chaos”

GLENN GUILBEAU. Tiger Rag Editor

It was noticeable as soon as one drove near the LSU football practice fields on Tuesday afternoon.

Yelling – in a good way – and energy, excitement. And once closer, some hitting.

Fun football was back at LSU, which is usually the case when a coach is fired or resigns and is replaced by an interim coach, which happened on Sunday with the dismissal of Brian Kelly. Associate head coach Frank Wilson, who was with Kelly since he first got to LSU in December of 2021, is the new interim coach.

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What frequently happens when an interim enters is an immediate release of pressure for the players, a more relaxed nature with them, better practices and sometimes better play in games – at least in the short term.

“Fun filled, exciting,” Wilson said to open a press conference after practice. “There was life today at practice. For the team, here we are in this moment. We live in the moment.”

In other words, it’s a new day.

Wilson, 51 and a New Orleans native and LSU coaching veteran, is a head coach for the first time since he was at McNeese State in 2020 and ’21 (7-11, 5-9 Southland Conference) before choosing to leave to return to LSU and join Kelly’s staff. He previously was Texas-San Antonio’s head coach from 2016-19 (19-29, 13-19 Conference-USA) after serving as LSU’s recruiting coordinator and running backs coach from 2010-15 under coach Les Miles.

The Tigers (5-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) do not have a game Saturday as they are open. So Wilson and his players can work on themselves before playing at No. 4 Alabama (7-1, 5-0 SEC) on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 6:30 p.m. on ABC. LSU’s next home game is on Nov. 15 at 11 a.m. or noon against Arkansas (2-6, 0-4 SEC), which is also under an interim coach in Bobby Petrino after Sam Pittman was fired in September after a 2-3 and 0-1 start.

“We have a lot of season still left for us,” Wilson said. “Four games. Sometimes in the midst of chaos, there is opportunity. Amid a whirlwind and confusion, there is opportunity.”

Wilson likely does not have a chance to be the head coach beyond interim, unlike his friend and fellow former LSU assistant coach Ed Orgeron, who was promoted to interim head coach four games into the 2015 season when Les Miles was fired. Orgeron finished the regular season 5-2 as interim coach, got the head coaching job and went on to win the national championship in the 2019 season. He was fired during the 2021 season that ended at 6-7 after a 5-5 campaign in 2020, and Kelly replaced him.

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LSU athletic director Scott Woodward said Sunday that he was beginning a national search for a new coach immediately.

“We didn’t indulge too much into it,” Wilson said when asked what Woodward told him about his chances for the job. “Sunday night when the decision was made, I was asked at that time, ‘Would I lead us through this for the remainder of the season?’ And certainly I was extremely honored to do so, humbled to do so. We talked about that portion of it for this moment. When that happens, you answer the bell. When the mother university calls for you, you answer. You pull up your bootstraps, and you do what’s required and asked of you to represent our university.”

Wilson played at Nicholls State in 1994 and ’95 and started his coaching career there as a student assistant in 1996 before becoming a high school assistant coach at Edna Karr in New Orleans from 1997-99 and a head coach at O.P. Walker from 2000-03. He was a running backs and special teams coach at Ole Miss under Orgeron at Ole Miss from 2005-07, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Southern Mississippi in 2008 and rejoined Orgeron as an assistant coaching receivers at Tennessee under Lane Kiffin in 2009.

Wilson was asked if he views his new position as a resume’ builder.

“I don’t. I can’t,” he said. “I cannot peer across the fence to look at something else and not read where my feet are. I have to be here. I have to be in the moment. We have to be in this moment.”

Wilson said the job is much bigger than him.

“I just happen to be the caretaker at this moment for this wonderful institution that we so love,” he said. “It’s our flagship state university. We have tremendous pride in it. I will do my very best and die trying to represent us as a university, as a state, as a community at the best of my ability with dignity and with pride.”