Many LSU fans have recently been rejoicing the firing of Brian Kelly, but now the next person fans are calling to be replaced is Athletic Director Scott Woodward.
People have been disappointed with the impending multimillion dollar buyout in the contract Woodward signed Kelly to, and after Kelly was dismissed of his head coaching duties on Sunday, the time to pay is now.
This also comes only two years after the Jimbo Fisher buyout at Texas A&M, which became the most expensive buyout of all time due to the contract Fisher signed in 2018 while Woodward was the athletic director at A&M.
Now Woodward has had two extremely embarrassing football coach hires over his career, being directly responsible for the two most expensive buyouts in college football history.
While his LSU Athletics career has not been anything I’d call legendary, he has made great hires for other sports, signing national championship winning coaches Jay Johnson, Kim Mulkey and Jay Clark.
Now the question lingers of, what happens next for Woodward? Will LSU fire Woodward before the next football coach is hired to hopefully avoid another disaster of a signing, or does LSU Athletics still see Woodward as the man for the job and give him a second chance?
Woodward returned to his alma mater, LSU, before the 2019 season, disappointing many who were not able to look past his pricey hiring of Fisher the year before. Fans would quickly forget about the Woodward hiring, though, as then-LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron went undefeated and won the infamous 2019 College Football Playoff national championship.
Other than that first year, running football has come as a challenge for Woodward. Woodward would make the decision of hiring Kelly to an insane 10-year, $95 million-deal in 2021, making him the fourth-highest paid coach in the SEC.
To sign someone to such a lengthy and expensive contract, an athletic director should make sure the coach has the qualities to fit the SEC, and this is where I feel Woodward failed. Kelly just couldn’t match the intensity of the SEC.
Kelly came from Notre Dame, and though he had a great record, coaching an independent team and a top-caliber SEC team are polar opposites. At Notre Dame, Kelly would likely only play two or three top-tier teams a year before the playoffs, which he made twice, but at LSU, almost every game is a challenge and requires peak performance to win.
Kelly just never seemed like the SEC coach who could fire up his players in a must-win game and did not seem to have the correct approach of improving the team rather than finding excuses for his poor decision making.
Kelly’s hiring is completely at fault of Woodward, with it seeming like Kelly was hired mostly off name value rather than him actually being the correct fit for LSU. This really just feels like a complete repeat of the Fisher issue and it should worry fans if Woodward takes charge in hiring the new coach.
Although Woodward has been extremely disappointing in running football at LSU, he has played a key role in the immense success of other LSU athletic programs that doesn’t go unnoticed.
In his six years here, Woodward has won multiple national championships: one in football, gymnastics and women’s basketball, and two in baseball. These programs have won in direct response to Woodward’s great hirings of coaches who have changed the culture of their programs dramatically. As mentioned before, Woodward hired Johnson, Mulkey and Clark, all of whom look to be huge successes and will be around LSU for years to come.
Now LSU will have to make the tough decision of weighing the success of other sports against football when deciding whether to keep Woodward or not. Football for sure holds the most financial and cultural weight at LSU, so it’s important not to be set up for more years of mediocrity by whatever coach comes in next.
Overall, I feel like this decision really falls down to LSU weighing Woodward’s success against other athletic directors looking for a job. Due to Woodward’s connection to LSU and other successful hirings, it would take someone of high status to replace him, and I’m not sure it’s even fair to call Woodward the problem.
If he makes a more educated decision rather than just hiring the most successful coach in the pool, LSU could find a suitable SEC coach for cheaper and less guaranteed time. I think if Woodward stays in charge but his new hire is short of what’s expected, that could be the end of Woodward’s time here.
Woodward can very realistically see another year in charge, but I also would not be surprised at all if he’s removed this offseason. I would say, though, that LSU fans need to be careful what they wish for.
Woodward may not be the answer for football, but simply replacing him does not guarantee success. LSU is in a very chaotic time, needing to deal with players transferring and recruits flipping in response to uncertainty of the coaching staff and program overall. With this, I don’t think removing one of the only remaining familiar faces would actually spark improvement.
