By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Call LSU, Louisiana Shakespearean University.
On the day after his 64th birthday, LSU football coach Brian Kelly got the proverbial knife on Sunday by imperial LSU athletic director Scott Woodward, and Woodward in turn got the blade Thursday night from the LSU Board of Supervisors after suggestions by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry.
Such is LSU.
Over the ides of April, 2019, decades-long LSU power broker and Tiger Athletic Foundation founder Richard Lipsey ousted athletic director Joe Alleva and brought in his old family friend Scott Woodward from the athletic director post at Texas A&M.
Just nine months after Alleva’s ousting, the football coach he hired in 2016 – Ed Orgeron – directed LSU to its greatest season in school history as 15-0 national champions with one of the best offenses in collegiate history.in the 2019 season.
Just four months after Woodward celebrated the second baseball national championship won by coach Jay Johnson, whom he hired in 2021, and fourth national title overall by coaches he hired at LSU, Woodward is out.
Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports broke the story Thursday night, and Tiger Rag sources confirmed that Woodward’s six-and-a-half-year reign as athletic director was done. Woodward rarely came into the office at LSU and rarely did any interviews, but he ruled strongly and basically answered to no one, until just recently.
Still no comment from LSU or AD Scott Woodward on Governor Jeff Landry’s bombshell on Wednesday: “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 do it.” https://t.co/HQfpbWjFpI
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 30, 2025
Landry announced the firing of Woodward from the search to find a new football coach on Wednesday because of what he called a “terrible contract” with Kelly. That was the handwriting on the wall as athletic directors primary function at major programs, such as LSU, centers on the football team. And athletic directors love to hire football coaches. It leaves their mark. And Kelly failed to live up to the $100 million deal Woodward gave him over 10 years after the 2021 season to leave Notre Dame’s head coaching job.
That’s a national championship contract, and Kelly never made the playoffs in four seasons.
What former attorney/present La. Governor Jeff Landry said on Pat McAfee Show about how you’ll pay Brian Kelly’s buyout if fairy godmother donor doesn’t. … And does Landry want Scott Woodward fired?https://t.co/LS1fEJv3BE
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 30, 2025
That contract says Kelly will receive a $52.3 million buyout after being fired with six years left on his contract. Kelly’s Tigers lost 49-25 to No. 3 Texas A&M on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium after losing the third quarter, 35-7. By Sunday, Kelly was fired.
Woodward said Sunday in an LSU release about firing Kelly that the buyout was being negotiated, but Kelly has not agreed to any terms below the stated $52.3 million.
“No, I can tell you right now, Scott Woodward will not be selecting the next coach,” Landry said Wednesday. “Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select him before I let him (Woodward) do it.”
Often, major college athletic directors who hire coaches who do not succeed get the ax sooner or later as well. Tiger Rag questioned Woodward’s football coach hiring practices in a piece on Oct. 18 after the loss at Vanderbilt.
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
Landry said on Wednesday that the LSU Board of Supervisors, which Landry selects members for and tends to direct, will conduct the search and hire the coach. That changed Thursday as LSU announced that executive deputy athletic director Verge Ausberry now will be conducting the search for the new football coach with some assistance from the Board. But Landry has not confirmed that.
“Ausberry will serve as interim director of athletics, effective immediately, and will lead all facets of the athletic department, including the search for the next head football coach,” LSU’s release on the Woodward firing said.
Ausberry joined the LSU athletic department in 1991 as an intern in the compliance office. Over the course of his 30-plus year career, he served the Tigers in areas including academics, fundraising, corporate relations, marketing, game management, sport administration, life skills, sports medicine and performance, equipment and alumni relations, LSU’s release said.
In 2019, he was promoted to the role of Executive Deputy Athletic Director, as well as Executive Director of External Relations. In the latter role, he assists the Office of the President in external and governmental relations.
SCOTT WOODWARD PENS LETTER TO LSU FANS ON HIS LAST NIGHT AS ATHLETIC DIRECTOR
Woodward, 62, leaves LSU after finding great success as LSU’s athletic director in many sports … other than football. He hired three-time national champion women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey from Baylor in the spring of 2021, and she won the national championship at LSU in 2023. He hired Arizona baseball coach Jay Johnson in the summer of 2021, and he won the national title two years later in 2023 and again over this summer. Woodward promoted gymnastics assistant coach Jay Clark to replace D-D Breaux in 2020, and Clark won the national title in 2024.
“We thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director,” Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard said in the LSU release. “He had a lot of success at LSU, and we wish him nothing but the best in the future. Our focus now is on moving the athletic department forward and best positioning LSU to achieve its full potential.”
A New Iberia native, Ausberry played linebacker at LSU in the 1980s under head coaches Bill Arnsparger and Mike Archer.
“Verge Ausberry is a native son of Louisiana and LSU, who has spent all of his adult life working to better this athletic department and this state,” Board of Supervisors athletic committee chairman John Carmouche said. “From the time he arrived on campus as a football student-athlete, he’s been associated with championship excellence and will continue to uphold that standard in his role as interim athletic director. He’s the ideal person to lead this department with full authority at this time. Together we will show the country that LSU continues to be an elite destination for student-athletes, coaches and staff.”
Ausberry, who has all the qualifications to be LSU’s next athletic director, had already been assisting Woodward in the search for a new football coach this week.
“I’m honored for the Board of Supervisors and university leadership to put their trust in me to serve the university in this role,” Ausberry said. “I arrived at LSU as a freshman student-athlete in 1985, and from that point forward, this institution has impacted my life and my family in ways I never could have imagined. It’s my responsibility to move this athletic department forward, including hiring the best football coach in America to lead our program.”
LSU associate head coach Frank Wilson replaced Kelly on Sunday night. After an open date Saturday, he will lead the Tigers on Saturday, Nov. 8, at No. 4 Alabama in prime time (6:30 p.m., ABC).
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