Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry Claims He’d Let Trump Pick LSU’s Next Coach Before Athletic Director
FILE – Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry records a social media video outside the White House, March 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, file)
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday said he’d allow President Donald Trump to pick LSU football’s next head coach before letting the school’s athletic director do it.
On Sunday, LSU athletic director Scott Woodward announced the university had fired head coach Brian Kelly. The firing came after the Tigers suffered an embarrassing 49-25 loss to Texas A&M and fell to 5-3 for the season.
Three days later, Landry stunned the college sports world when he announced that Woodward would not be in charge of picking the team’s next head coach. Instead, Landry insisted, a committee would be created to handle the matter. Landry suggested that allowing the AD to pick the coach would be “going down a failed path.”
The governor felt so strongly that LSU’s own AD wasn’t fit for the task that he even claimed he’d led the President of the United States do the job instead. He also justified his intervention on the matter, saying it’s a taxpayer concern.
“I can tell you right now, Scott Woodward is not selecting the next coach,” Landry said at a press conference. “Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select before I let him do it!
“Look, my role is about the fiscal effect of firing a coach under a terrible contract, OK? All I care about is what the taxpayers are going to be on the hook on. I was also not happy with the fact that we were raising ticket prices while we were having a losing season, and we were paying a coach $100 million and we were not getting the results.”
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