The LSU head coaching job is one of the biggest positions currently open in the college football. The school fired Brian Kelly during his fourth season in Baton Rouge.
There has also been a good amount instability at the school, with both the athletic director and university president positions. LSU had been operating under an interim athletic director, and recently hired a new school president after going nearly six months without one.
Former LSU AD Scott Woodward resigned from the position just last week, following public comments from Louisiana governor Jeff Landry.
Here's everything you need to know about LSU's new athletic director, Verge Ausberry, the controversy surrounding him and why Louisiana's governor was involved in the head coaching search in the first place.
MORE: Brian Kelly makes first public statement since LSU firing
LSU athletic director controversy timeline
Oct. 26: LSU fires Brian Kelly
LSU fired Kelly less than 24 hours after the Tigers' blowout loss to Texas A&M at home. The school has been without a university president since May, as William F. Tate IV was hired for the same job at Rutgers.
As a result, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry had a more active role in the decision to fire Kelly. Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger reported the decision to move on from Kelly stemmed from a meeting at the governor's mansion.
Oct. 30: Jeff Landry claims Scott Woodward won't be hiring Kelly's replacement
Just days after firing Kelly, Landry stated outright that LSU's athletic director would not be the one hiring his replacement. Woodward hired Kelly to come to LSU, and had previously hired Jimbo Fisher to initially come to Texas A&M in 2017.
"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 going to pick a coach and we're going to make sure that coach is successful, and we're going to make sure that he's compensated properly and we're going to put metrics on it. Because I'm tired of rewarding failure in this country, and then leaving the taxpayers on the foot -- to foot the bill."
MORE: What's next for Brian Kelly?
Landry was then asked if Woodward was going to be the one selecting LSU's next head coach.
"No, I can tell you right now Scott Woodward is not selecting the next coach. Hell, I'll let Donald Trump select the next head coach before I let him do it."
Here's video of the full exchange:
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry saying Scott Woodward will not be making next hire https://t.co/d2eanxXr9l pic.twitter.com/P6JqNO3Iyh
— FootballScoop (@FootballScoop) October 29, 2025
%3Cscript%20async%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fplatform.twitter.com%2Fwidgets.js%22%20charset%3D%22utf-8%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry just said he’d let Donald Trump pick LSU’s next coach before allowing athletic director Scott Woodward to do it.
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) October 29, 2025
Landry then goes off about how all the same agents represent the coaches and ADs.
Man, I love college football pic.twitter.com/vR8mOegWy6
Oct. 30: LSU, Woodward expected to part ways
Pete Thamel reported that Woodward and the school was expected to separate in the near future. The news came just a few hours after Landry's public comments.
Sources: LSU and AD Scott Woodward are expected to separate in the near future. This move comes in the wake of Gov. Jeff Landry’s criticism of Woodward and declaring he wouldn’t make the hire in the football coaching search.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 31, 2025
Shortly after Thamel's reporting, LSU confirmed his departure, and named Ausberry as the university's interim AD:
LSU has confirmed the firing of AD Scott Woodward in a press release.
— Ben Portnoy (@bportnoy15) October 31, 2025
Executive Deputy AD Verge Ausberry, a longtime LSU administrator and former Tigers football player, will take over as interim AD.
A wild as hell week in Baton Rouge continues… pic.twitter.com/8TSjlxjAR1
Woodward had a contract with LSU that was set to go through 2029. He was reportedly to be owed the $6.8 million left on his contract.
Nov. 4: LSU names Wade Rousse new university president
The week prior, LSU announced that the search had been narrowed down to three finalists, including Robert Robbins, Wade Rousse and James Dalton.
With Rousse being named the university president, the school additionally named Dalton as Executive Vice President of the LSU System and Chancellor of the Flagship A&M campus in Baton Rouge. Previously those roles fell under the leadership of the LSU president, but the school split it into two roles.
Nov. 4: LSU reportedly names Verge Ausberry as new AD
Ausberry was named the school's interim AD on Oct. 30. The Advocate reported that Ausberry had been given the full-time AD job on Nov. 4 Ausberry has been at LSU since 1991, starting as an intern at the athletic department. He served as the Executive Deputy Athletic Director since 2019.
Nov. 5: LSU's new president appears to backtrack on Ausberry as AD
Just one day after The Advocate's reporting, new LSU president Wade Rousse appeared to backtrack on Ausberry being named the new AD. During an interview with another local Louisiana outlet, he appeared to suggest that removing the interim tag title did not make him the school's permanent AD:
In an interview with Piper Hutchinson of the Louisiana Illuminator, Rousse said of the Ausberry decision: “I'll remove the interim (title) and then we'll assess the situation. I can't make a very good decision after being... On the job for eight hours …”
Then, Rousse added: “I don’t know what permanent means versus removing the interim.”
Nov. 6: LSU confirms Ausberry as AD
Just a day after Rousse's puzzling comments, LSU confirmed to The Advocate that Ausberry is LSU's permanent athletic director.
"Verge Ausberry is the Athletic Director at LSU," LSU vice president of marketing and communications Todd Woodward said in a statement. "He has the president’s full support to lead the athletics department and to identify the next coach to lead our storied football program."
Ausberry is listed on the LSU athletics page as LSU's athletic director, seemingly making it official -- for now.
MORE: Brian Kelly replacements
Who is Verge Ausberry?
Ausberry has been at LSU for over 24 years. According to his LSU bio, he graduated from the school in 1990, getting a bachelor's degree in education. He joined LSU's athletic department in 1991, first working as an intern for the compliance office. Here's more from his LSU bio:
Ausberry joined the LSU athletic department in 1991 as an intern in the compliance office. Over the course of more than 30 years, 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.
In 2019, Ausberry was promoted to the role of Executive Deputy Athletic Director, as well as Executive Director of External Relations for the University. In the latter role, he assisted the Office of the President in external and governmental relations.
In 2018, Ausberry was recognized as LSU National L Club Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.
Verge Ausberry controversy
But Ausberry being named the school's permanent athletic director has been met with some backlash. The controversy stems from Ausberry being named in LSU's Title IX report, released in March 2021.
According to USA Today, Ausberry was mentioned 72 times in the 148-page document. The independent investigation, led by Husch Blackwell, found that LSU routinely mishandled allegations of sexual misconduct. As for Ausberry specifically, the school suspended him for 30 days. Blackwell's report cited an incident in which Ausberry failed to report that former LSU wide receiver Drake Davis told him via text message that he punched his then-girlfriend. Via USA Today:
A USA Today investigation in late 2020 found that Ausberry and other officials in LSU’s athletic department ignored complaints against abusers on Tigers rosters and subjected their victims to further harm by known perpetrators. They also funneled the complaints they did acknowledge to another athletic department administrator rather than the school’s Title IX coordinator, as school policy required.
This prompted LSU to hire law firm Husch Blackwell to investigate the school, and it found systemic failure by Ausberry and other employees.
Ausberry, Husch Blackwell found, did not report that then-LSU wide receiver Drake Davis told him in a text message that he had punched his girlfriend. No other LSU official knew about the incident until two weeks later, when the woman, another LSU athlete, went to an athletic trainer because she was still in pain.
The reporting is damning enough, but Ausberry remained in LSU's athletic department, save his suspension. In an even worse look, new LSU president Ausberry said in his interview with the Louisiana Illuminator that he didn't know much of Ausberry's involvement with the Title IX violations:
Rousse said he doesn’t know very much about Ausberry’s involvement in the Title IX scandal.
— Piper Hutchinson (@ByPiperHutch) November 5, 2025
Who is Scott Woodward?
LSU's former athletic director was Scott Woodward. Woodward, who graduated from LSU in 1985, was hired by his alma mater in April 2019. He previously held the same position at Texas A&M from 2016–2019 and at Washington from 2008–2015.
Why was Scott Woodward fired?
Woodward and LSU parted ways shortly after Landry's public comments about the AD leading the search for Kelly's replacement. Kelly signed a 10-year, $95 million contract with LSU in Nov. 2021, so he was expected to receive a hefty buyout.
Jeff Landry comments on Scott Woodward
Landry's public criticism of Woodward seemed to stem from both Kelly's buyout and Woodward hiring Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.
"The first question is absolutely correct," Landry said. "We are not going down a forward path. And I wanna tell you something, this is a pattern, The guy [Woodward] that's here now that wrote that contract? Cost Texas A&M $70-something million dollars. Right now we got a $53 million liability. We are not doing that again. And you know what? I believe that we're going to find a great coach."
Brian Kelly buyout
Although Kelly's buyout was expected to be around $54 million, it appears as though the two sides reached a settlement. In an email obtained by WAFB-9 in Baton Rouge, Kelly wrote to Woodward and other LSU athletics administrators, including Ausberry, that he was "open to your desire to reach a settlement of what’s owed to me under the contract, although of course it would have to make sense financially."
It's unclear if Kelly received the full $54 million in his contract, or if another amount was agreed upon.
Scott Woodward Jimbo Fisher
Woodward has come under fire in recent days due to the hires he has made in the past. For starters, he was the one who initially hired Jimbo Fisher from Florida State to Texas A&M. Fisher finished 45-25 over six seasons with the Aggies, and Texas A&M never made the College Football Playoff or SEC title game.
Fisher was given a historic $77 million buyout upon his firing in November 2023. While Woodward did hire Fisher initially, it was former Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork who signed off on Fisher's 2021 extension. That extension raised his annual salary to just over $9 million and extended him through 2030. That was a pay increase from his initial $7.5 million annual salary with the school. So while Woodward obviously gets blamed for hiring Fisher at A&M initially, you can't blame him entirely for how big his buyout was, as easy as it may seem to do.
But Woodward has hired some successful coaches, too. He's responsible for hiring Chris Petersen at Washington, getting Kim Mulkey to LSU from Baylor, as well as former Aggies men's basketball head coach Buzz Williams.
Woodward's most recent miss came in the hiring of Kelly, who came over from Notre Dame.