LSU Interim Athletic Director Verge Ausberry will lead the search for its next head football coach, the athletic department announced in a statement Thursday.
There was previously lots of speculation over who’d take the reins for the search, with the university lacking a permanent president, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry taking a public and active role in the conversation and confidence in the former Athletic Director Scott Woodward waning.
Ausberry is in his 24th year of employment within LSU Athletics and is also an alumnus who played linebacker on the football team.
Woodward and LSU parted ways Thursday, according to the same statement. The news came after Landry was critical of Woodward, saying in a press conference Wednesday that Woodward wouldn’t be hiring the next coach.
“I can tell you right now, [LSU Athletic Director] Scott Woodward is not selecting the next coach,” Landry said. “Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump do it before I let him do it.”
When asked who would pick the coach if not Woodward, Landry said he didn’t know but proposed the Board of Supervisors might form a committee.
LSU football head coach Brian Kelly was fired on Sunday after a disappointing start to the SEC season, which meant the school is set to pay his $53 million buyout. Landry complained about that money, calling it a “liability.”
“I believe that we’re gonna find a great coach,” Landry said. “I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill.”
Woodward, who’s been at LSU since 2019 and is from Baton Rouge, was also the athletic director at Texas A&M when it hired football coach Jimbo Fisher. Fisher was eventually fired, forcing Texas A&M to pay a $77 million buyout, the largest in college football history. Landry pointed to that as evidence of Woodward’s “track record.”
Woodward was no longer working at Texas A&M when Fisher was fired.
In 2020, Ausberry was implicated in the university’s Title IX scandal in athletics when he didn’t report a football player’s confession to domestic violence to the Title IX office or to law enforcement. As a result, he was later suspended and stepped down from the school’s presidential search committee at the time.
