LSU Athletic Director Verge Ausberry knew exactly what was at stake.
“Hiring a football coach at LSU is the biggest thing in the state of Louisiana,” Ausberry said. “I thought about, this will be my legacy at LSU — that I have to get the right person to be the head coach at LSU.”
From the moment LSU parted ways with Brian Kelly, the former LSU linebacker stepped into the biggest assignment of his administrative career: find a coach who could restore Tiger Stadium’s edge and match LSU’s championship expectations.
And the name he kept hearing was Lane Kiffin.
Ausberry said his search for Kiffin began even before he officially became athletic director.
“After we made the transition … we had a list put together,” Ausberry said. “We said, ‘Who’s the top guys out there? Who could we get? What made sense to us?’ And Lane’s name kept popping up.”
Before he even sat down with Kiffin, Ausberry went on a discreet scouting mission through people he trusted.
“I wanted to get to know him a little bit,” Ausberry said. “So I contacted guys like Booger McFarland, Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears. Booger played for his father. They grew up together at the Buccaneers.”
He widened that circle to former LSU assistants and coaches around the country.
“I talked to a lot of coaches who worked here, and got a better feel about who the guy is,” Ausberry said. “Do we want him at LSU? Is he the right fit? That’s the thing — the fit here at LSU.”
Ausberry wasn’t just calling around. He was studying tape.
“I’ve been watching his team, how he plays, how he scores, what he does on offense,” he said.
He compared Kiffin’s feel for the moment to that of coaches like Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban and even legendary LSU baseball head coach Skip Bertman.
“And when I look at him, I’m like, ‘Wow, this guy here knows how to call a football game,’” Ausberry said.
For an AD who played in the 1988 Earthquake Game, in-game command matters.
Ausberry was reminded of that moment — what it meant to feel Death Valley shift under his feet.
“That’s what we want to get back,” Ausberry said. “I walked in Tiger Stadium a few times this year. I didn’t have that feeling. I didn’t feel the excitement. I didn’t feel that passion … When you walk in that stadium, there should be a little tingle in your stomach.”
He said hiring Kiffin made that tingle return.
This was Ausberry’s first major hire as athletic director — but not his first time inside a coaching search. He had been part of the transitions to Nick Saban and Les Miles and leaned heavily on those experiences.
He recalled telling then-AD Skip Bertman that no matter how many titles he won, hiring the wrong football coach would overshadow everything.
“You hire the wrong one … that’s going to be your legacy,” Ausberry said.
Kiffin’s hiring made national noise. In becoming head coach at LSU, he became the first in SEC history to lead three different programs — and he left a playoff-bound team to do it.
Throughout the search, Ausberry leaned on a network of coaching minds he trusts — the same circle Kiffin turns to.
“Nick and I talk every two weeks,” Ausberry said. “He’s one of my role models. Bill Arnsparger and Nick Saban — that’s who I grew up with. Jerry Sullivan … he’s the best offensive mind in the business.”
Those relationships helped him separate real interest from candidates using LSU for leverage.
“A lot of people you think are your No. 1 target — they might just be using it for money,” Ausberry said. “They’re not going to leave.”
With so many open jobs, this cycle mattered even more.
“Everybody was waiting for LSU,” Ausberry said. “We were the standard bearer. Once LSU falls, everybody knows what they’re doing, and that’s what happened.”
For Ausberry, the search was professional — but also deeply personal. He played here. He raised his family here. He has spent his adult life inside LSU Athletics.
“He is LSU,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said after Ausberry was hired.
At LSU, Ausberry said his responsibility is simple.
“We’re not going to fail,” Ausberry said. “I’m going to leave this place better than I came. This place is going to be great.”
For now, his legacy is tied to a seven-year, $91 million contract — and the coach whose name kept popping up. The coach he flew into Oxford and welcomed home. The coach he believes can restore Tiger Stadium’s tingle and bring another championship trophy back to Baton Rouge.
