LSU athletic director Scott Woodward resigned under pressure from the post he's held for six years on Thursday night, four days after the firing of football coach Brian Kelly and a day after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said Woodward would not hire Kelly's replacement.
Woodward, a Baton Rouge native and LSU graduate, was hired as athletic director at his alma mater in April 2019. Since then, LSU has won national championships in football, baseball (twice), women's basketball and gymnastics.
“We thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director,” LSU Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard said. “He had a lot of success at LSU.
"Our focus now is on moving the athletic department forward and best positioning LSU to achieve its full potential.”
Among the coaches hired by Woodward was Kim Mulkey, who led LSU to its first women's basketball national title in 2023. Her team played an exhibition game on Thursday night, and Mulkey declined to attend a postgame news conference, sending assistant Bob Starkey instead.
“She's heartbroken,” Starkey told reporters.
“In 40 years of coaching, I've worked with two phenomenal athletic directors,” Starkey added. “One was Skip Bertman (at LSU). The other one was Scott Woodward.”
Verge Ausberry, LSU's executive deputy athletic director, will replace Woodward on an interim basis and lead the search for a football coach, the university announced.
In an open letter to LSU fans, Woodward said, “Our University will always hold a special place in my heart and I will never be too far from LSU.”
“Others can recap or opine on my tenure and on my decisions over the last six years as Director of Athletics, but I will not,” Woodward said. “Rather, I will focus on the absolute joy that LSU Athletics brings to our state’s residents and to the Baton Rouge community.”
When Woodward was hired in 2019, James Carville, a political pundit who graduated from LSU, taught there and was named to the university's Manship School of Mass Communications' Hall of Fame, hosted a welcome party for him at his house in New Orleans.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday night, Carville, a Democrat, expressed disgust at the circumstances surrounding Woodward's sudden departure.
“The Louisiana governor and the LSU board has damaged the reputation of our university," Carville said. "Landry’s IQ is the equivalent of the temperature of dishwater.
“The LSU board is weak and pathetic," Carville added. “This is not about my politics. It’s about my university.”
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According to Woodward's contract, he is owed more than $5 million through 2029. LSU has not yet announced the financial terms of his separation agreement.
Landry on Wednesday was hosting a news conference about government matters not concerning LSU when he was asked about the Tigers' coaching situation and asserted that Woodward would not be involved in the selection of the next coach.
Under Woodward, the football program bought out former coach Ed Orgeron for about $17 million in 2021. The buyout for Kelly, whom Woodward signed to a 10-year contract worth about $100 million in December 2021, is about $53 million, which is among the largest in the history of college sports.
Texas A&M’s $77 million buyout of former coach Jimbo Fisher, who was fired in 2023, is the largest.
Woodward was Texas A&M’s athletic director when Fisher was hired to coach the Aggies in December 2017. But Woodward already had been at LSU for two years when A&M, in 2021, gave Fisher a contract extension that effectively doubled the cost of his buyout.
Still, Landry assigned blame for Fisher’s buyout to Woodward.
“This is a pattern,” Landry said. “Right now, we’ve got a $53 million liability. ... We are not doing that again.”
Kelly's firing on Sunday came a day after LSU lost at home to Texas A&M, 49-25 — the Tigers' third defeat in four games.
Kelly went 34-14 at LSU, never reaching the College Football Playoff, which was expanded from four to 12 teams in 2024.
LSU does not currently have a president. Its most recent president, William F. Tate IV, left to become president of Rutgers in July. The next president will be hired by the Board of Supervisors, whose members are appointed by the governor to six-year staggered terms.
Since Landry took office in January 2024, he has appointed nine of the 18 board members, and will have the chance to appoint four more in 2026.
The board has announced that it expects to select the next president on Tuesday.
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