By: Kylah Babin, AnnMarie Bedard and Veronica Camenzuli | LSU Manship News Service
BATON ROUGE – Gov. Jeff Landry blasted LSU’s athletic leadership for negotiating an overly generous contract for the head football coach whom LSU fired on Sunday.
The governor expressed his frustration over a range of bad decisions by LSU Athletics but singled out the Athletics Director Scott Woodward for the eye-popping contract that brought Brian Kelly to LSU from Notre Dame in 2021. The contract was for nearly $100 million over 10 years of which Kelly coached less than four years.
“I can tell you right now, Scott is not selecting the next coach. Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select the next coach before I let him do it,” Landry said.
He later said “we are going to make sure the next coach is successful because I am tired of rewarding failure in this country, and leaving taxpayers to pay the bill.”
Kelly’s buyout is still under negotiation but it is believed to initially be $53 million, the second-largest buyout in football history. The largest, $77 million, went to fired Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher in 2023. Fisher’s first contract was signed off by Woodward when he was athletic director at Texas A&M. That called for $75 million over 10 years, but after Woodward came to LSU in 2019, Texas A&M extended the contract for $95 million over 10 years in 2021.
Efforts to reach the LSU Athletic Department, Woodward and LSU for comment were unsuccessful.
Landry called a press conference Wednesday to address expiring SNAP food benefits in November but passionately switched topics to LSU football after a reporter asked about his role in Kelly’s firing.
The governor said he was not involved in the firing decision, but he held a meeting at the Governor’s Mansion on Sunday night to review the “legalities” of the termination and to discuss who will pay the buyout. Landry said his role “is about the fiscal effect of firing a coach under a terrible contract.”
Landry also criticized the agents who represent prominent sports figures, like Woodward, Kelly and Fisher. “You know what’s interesting?” asked the governor. “If I’m not mistaken Woodward’s agent, Kelly’s agent, the Texas A&M – they’re all the same agent.”
“This is ridiculous,” the governor said. “ Lawyers would be disbarred for the ways these agents act and the way they’re able to represent. “It’s really time for the NCAA to put on some guardrails in college sports.”
On top of the Kelly contract, Landry also pointed out his distaste towards LSU’s decision to raise ticket prices for next year after the football team had lost two of the last three games.
Landry assured that the LSU Board of Supervisors will come up with a committee that will select the next
LSU football coach.
In the past, the board has had an outsized role in LSU athletics. In 2019, board leaders insisted on hiring Woodward, a Baton Rouge native and LSU alumnus. At a private meeting at a Baton Rouge restaurant, former LSU board chair James Williams wrote Woodward’s starting salary on a cocktail napkin and handed it to then-LSU President F. King Alexander. Alexander said that board members told him he needed to fire former LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva and hire Woodward.
Woodward has hired two successful coaches that have since won national championships for LSU: LSU Women’s Basketball Coach Kim Mulkey and LSU Baseball Coach Jay Johnson.