Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has said that Louisiana State University’s Athletic Director Scott Woodward will play no part in picking the Tigers’ next coach, suggesting President Donald Trump should do it instead.
The SEC giant’s head coach, Brian Kelly, was fired Sunday following the college football team’s defeat to Texas A&M Aggies, bringing an end to his four-season tenure.
Kelly departs with a 71 percent win rate, having achieved 34 wins and 14 losses, which was deemed unacceptable, and has been replaced by Frank Wilson on an interim basis.
“I can tell you right now Scott Woodward is not selecting our next coach,” Gov. Landry told reporters in Baton Rouge Wednesday, making clear he blames the administrator for the Tigers’ recent underachievement.
“Maybe we’ll let President Trump pick it. He loves winners. You know, I’m not going to be picking the next coach, but I can promise you we’re gonna pick a coach and we’re gonna make sure that that coach is successful.
“We’re gonna make sure that he’s compensated properly, and we’re gonna put metrics on it because I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill.”
The Independent has reached out to the governor’s office, LSU, and the White House for comment.
The governor admitted that he was involved in the decision to fire Kelly, hosting LSU officials at his mansion Sunday night to thrash out the details.
He said the LSU Board of Supervisors will now assemble a select committee to headhunt a new coach, but opposed Woodward’s involvement, having criticized him for negotiating Kelly’s 10-year, $95 million contract, which has ultimately left LSU facing a $54 million buyout in removing him, according to ESPN.
The governor continued to rebuke Woodward by saying, “We are not going down a failed path. And I want to tell you something: This is a pattern. The guy that’s here now… wrote that contract [that] cost Texas A&M 70-some million dollars. Right now, we’ve got a $53 million liability. We are not doing that again. And you know what? I believe that we’re gonna find a great coach.”
Landry was referring to Woodward’s previous role at Texas and the costly departure of its coach Jimbo Fisher in 2023. However, it was actually his successor, Ross Bjork, who agreed to Fisher’s lucrative contract extension before his dismissal.
When asked about his own responsibility for the present situation, Landry told the press: “My role is about the fiscal effect of firing a coach under a terrible contract, OK? All I care about is what the taxpayers are going to be on the hook [for]. I was also not happy with the fact that we were raising ticket prices while we were having a losing season. And we were paying a coach $100 million and we were not getting the results.
“Now, look, I have no animus against Brian Kelly. I don’t dislike Brian Kelly. But I think that it had gotten to the point, and I think they realized that the spirit of the team needed a change.”
Earlier this week, Landry posted a video on X, exerting additional pressure on LSU by posing next to its “Mike the Tiger” monument and calling on the influential institution to erect a statue honoring MAGA activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead by a sniper on a Utah university campus last month.
Landry had spoken at an event organized by the late activist’s Turning Point USA organization and emerged demanding that LSU honor Kirk with a memorial dedicated to defending freedom of speech on college campuses.
