GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
A week that will live in infamy at LSU is over.
The final seven days of October featured:
Welcome to Louisiana Shakespearean University … LSU athletic director Scott Woodward gets the dagger 4 days after knifing football coach Brian Kelly.https://t.co/kT0otYNs6N
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 31, 2025
– the firing of LSU head football coach Brian Kelly by athletic director Scott Woodward on Sunday a week ago, following the Tigers’ 49-25 loss at home to No. 3 Texas A&M on Saturday, Oct. 25.
– the firing of LSU offensive coordinator Joe Sloan last Monday.
– new interim head coach Frank Wilson being introduced at a press conference on Tuesday.
– the removing of Woodward by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry from the search for a new football coach on Wednesday.
– the firing of Woodward by the LSU Board of Supervisors via Governor Landry on Thursday.
“The Board’s leadership has handled this whole episode poorly. They let the Governor dictate their actions.”
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 2, 2025
LSU power broker and donor Richard Lipsey to Tiger Rag Saturday. https://t.co/x0q6YFVIgb
– new interim athletic director Verge Ausberry being introduced on Friday at a Halloween morning press conference.
Now, it’s back to football on the field as the once-No. 3, but now unranked Tigers (5-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) play at No. 4 Alabama (7-1, 5-0 SEC) on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC) after an open week … from a football game, that is.
Funny, LSU fans and some local media members were just criticizing Alabama early this season for its season opening loss to Florida State after a 9-4 season in 2024 (the Tide’s worst since 2007) under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer. Who’s laughing now?
“Sometimes, in the midst of chaos, there is opportunity.”
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 28, 2025
-LSU interim football coach Frank Wilson:https://t.co/WNzEaTebNI
Wilson responded by putting his team through a brand new Reveille on the practice field last week after LSU suffered hemorrhaging hit after hit off the field.
“I was watching quite some time ago when we got bombed in Pearl Harbor, and sirens went off,” Wilson said last Tuesday after his first practice with the team as head coach and actually began imitating the loud, piercing sounds of emergency sirens.
“That sound effect, and it was an alert,” he said. “It was an all call. It was a rally call for us to come together. We emulated that for our football team. And as those sirens went off for the rally call, our team merged together at the 50-yard line. We held up all four of our fingers in both hands. We chanted, ‘Fourth quarter.’ We chanted, ‘Finish,’ because we’re all in to finish what we started. Being there for one another in a tough situation. If you will, to use an analogy, we’ve been invaded.”
“We know what we’re up against.”
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 3, 2025
-LSU interim coach Frank Wilson to kick off Bama Week:https://t.co/CLS5Fc9DqW
Wilson borrowed a page from former LSU and Alabama coach Nick Saban, who used the Pearl Harbor analogy after his first Crimson Tide team inexplicably lost to 25-point underdog Louisiana-Monroe, 21-14, on Nov. 17, 2007 – a day that has lived in infamy.
Saban’s comparison backfired as he lost again at Auburn in his next game to finish the regular season on a four-game losing streak and at 6-6 for the first and only back-to-back non-winning regular seasons of his coaching career. His Miami Dolphins team finished 6-10 in 2006.
Wilson held his first game week press conference Monday at noon as he turns more to the game plan for Alabama than to LSU’s big and bloody picture, and any World War II references for the moment.
“We have bonded closer during this time,” he said last week.
First things first during the open week was a return to the basics. Wilson has been running backs coach and associate head coach since returning to LSU under Kelly after the 2021 season. And running the ball has been a top priority since he took over. The Tigers stand 122nd in the nation out of 134 upper level programs in rushing offense with 106.3 yards a game.
Will LSU backup QB Michael Van Buren get to play more at Alabama?https://t.co/XfKxIvorJR
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 29, 2025
“There’s a huge emphasis on running the ball. I promise you we will run the ball,” Wilson said with a laugh, likely sarcastic, as LSU has not been able to run the ball with any effectiveness for the most part since Jayden Daniels was the quarterback in 2023.
“I think it allows us to be more effective in the pass game, where we have tremendous weapons that we haven’t utilized to the full potential for whatever reason,” Wilson said. “And so those areas where we lack, that we haven’t been our very best, we’re going to try to make sure that we’re doing that.”
Wilson, who was a special teams coach at Ole Miss from 2005-07 under then-head coach Ed Orgeron, also spent a lot of time on that area during the open date last week.
“One of the things we talked about – a tackling circuit,” he said. “We want to be very intentional in how we can continue to grow those units that they become additions to us that we gain from them, whether that’s a coverage unit, flipping the field or big yardage in the return game. There was a huge emphasis on special teams.”
The bloodshed is done for now at LSU. The hits will be on the practice field and at Alabama on Saturday. Alabama is a 10.5-point favorite to deliver more hits and hemorrhaging.
“The biggest thing for us is to stay close, stay together,” Wilson said. “We’re going to continue to try to do the things that put us in position to ascend.”
And stop the bombing.
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