LSU and athletic director Scott Woodward have agreed to part ways, the program announced Thursday night. This significant change atop the Tigers’ organization comes as amid a football coaching search that will hire a replacement for Brian Kelly, who was ousted from the team last Sunday.
Woodward had fallen out of favor with LSU stakeholders, including Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who said Woodward would not hire the Tigers’ next coach due to his track record of owing colossal buyouts to fired team leaders.
Kelly existed LSU with a massive $53 million buyout, the second largest in college football history. Woodward has a $6.4 million of his own. The Tigers may not be on the hook for those total sums given both contracts include a mitigation clause with a duty to seek new employment.
“We thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director,” said Scott Ballard, chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors. “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.”
Longtime athletic administrator Verge Ausberry will serve as the interim AD. He will be charged with leading “all facets of the athletic department, including the search for the next football coach,” per LSU. Ausbery served as executive deputy AD under Woodward and LSU’s executive director of external relations.
“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 in a release. “… It’s my responsibility to move this athletic department forward, including hiring the best football coach in America to lead our program. Our coaches and staff will continue to work every day to give our student-athletes the best experience possible and set a championship-level standard.”
Landry previously indicated that, instead of Woodward, the LSU Board of Supervisors would oversee the search for a new football coach. It was not specified whether that is still the plan with Ausberry leading the search or Ausberry will have greater authority in the hiring process.
“We are not going down a failed path,” Landry said, “and I wanted to tell you something. This is a pattern. The guy that wrote [Kelly’s] contract cost Texas A&M $70-something million. We have a $53 million liability. I believe that we are going to find a great coach. … The board of supervisors are going to come up with a committee, and they’re going to find us a coach.”
Woodward was hired by LSU in 2019 after a run at Texas A&M in which he was responsible for hiring Jimbo Fisher away from Florida State. He brought Fisher in at a significant sum with an ill-timed, substantial contract extension resulting in the largest buyout in college football history, leaving the Aggies on the hook for $76 million when they fired Fisher during the 2023 season.
Woodward similarly plucked Kelly away from Notre Dame, originally signing him to a 10-year, $95 million contract in 2021.
While neither Kelly nor Fisher delivered on the lofty expectations at their respective schools, Woodward did make a home-run hire earlier in his career. The former Washington AD successfully pried Chris Petersen away from Boise State in a move that revitalized the Huskies football program, which ultimately made a College Football Playoff appearance in 2016.
Woodward’s propensity to make splashy hires injected energy into the programs at each of his stops, but those moves ultimately came with drastic financial consequences at Texas A&M and LSU.
The Kelly firing spelled the end of Woodward’s six-year run at LSU. Kelly was an awkward fit for the Tigers from the start but carried immense promise as a longtime winner at Notre Dame. He never lost fewer than three games in a season in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, though he failed to reach the CFP.
Struggles to break into the SEC’s most elite tier reached a head last weekend when the Tigers lost at home in blowout fashion to No. 3 Texas A&M. Chants of “Fire Kelly” rang throughout a deflated Tiger Stadium.
