Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m always rooting for a potential Game 7, and now even more so after hearing what the Dodgers have planned for Shohei Ohtani in that instance.
In today’s SI:AM:
👋 LSU fires its AD
😤 Lamar returns with a vengeance
🏈 NFL trade deadline latest
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Who’s in charge at LSU?
LSU doesn’t have a permanent head football coach, and now it doesn’t have a permanent athletic director either.
Tigers AD Scott Woodward was ousted on Thursday, one day after Louisiana governor Jeff Landry laid into him at a press conference. Woodward technically resigned, but make no mistake: He was forced out.
“I can tell you right now: Scott Woodward will not be selecting the next coach,” Landry told reporters on Wednesday. “Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select him before I let him do it.”
Woodward’s departure underlines who’s really in charge at LSU right now: Landry. The school is without a university president after the previous president, William F. Tate IV, left to take the same position at Rutgers. Administrative decisions at LSU are currently being made by the Board of Supervisors, the members of which are appointed by the governor. Landry has appointed nine of the 18 board members since he assumed office in 2024, according to the Associated Press, and will be able to appoint four more members in ’26.
Landry also said Wednesday that he was tasking the board with finding the next football coach—a pronouncement that caught the board’s chair, Scott Ballard, off guard. Ballard said later Wednesday that he didn’t know Landry had given the board that directive.
The board is expected to vote on its choice for the new school president next week.
Landry, who attended UL-Lafayette, not LSU, has a history of inserting himself into LSU matters during his brief time as governor. Most infamously, he went over the head of LSU officials to bring a live tiger to the sidelines of last season’s rivalry game against Alabama in Baton Rouge. (The Tide rolled, 42–13.) Landry had urged the school to bring its live tiger mascot, Mike VII, to the game, as previous tiger mascots had done. LSU officials balked at the request because Mike VII, unlike its predecessors, had never before been subjected to appearances in front of 100,000 fans at Death Valley. LSU had not had a live mascot on the sideline since 2015 and officially ended the practice in 2017 over concerns that the raucous stadium environment was detrimental to the animal’s well-being. Landry was so insistent that there be a caged animal on hand that a tiger was imported from Florida. The tiger’s owner had been repeatedly cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for improper treatment of his animals.
The LSU job, with its supportive fan base, natural recruiting advantages and recent history of national championships, should be the most desirable of all the current openings. But there are also reasons for potential candidates to be hesitant. How many coaches are going to want to work at a school where the state’s governor feels so comfortable speaking as freely about the football program as he did Wednesday or so willing to flex his political influence over the school that, amid his push to bring back the live-mascot tradition, an endangered tiger was brought in across state lines? Whoever does take the role will be thrust into a job where the power structure is all jumbled. Will the new president select the coach, or will the Board of Supervisors do it? Will LSU hire a new athletic director before hiring the coach, or will the new AD come later and inherit a highly paid coach who they didn’t even hire? Firing Brian Kelly less than four years into a 10-year contract created a mess. Everything that’s transpired since then has made the mess even worse.
Without a coach, an athletic director or a school president, the LSU football program is totally rudderless right now. By dismissing Kelly and Woodward in quick succession and with a new president on the way, LSU has a chance at a total fresh start. But does the school have the steady leadership necessary to emerge from this period of instability on solid footing? Louisianans’ answer to that question probably depends on who they voted for in 2023.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Lamar Jackson wasn’t flawless in his return, but Thursday’s win showed the Ravens could be ready to make a serious run in the AFC North once again, writes Gilberto Manzano.
- As the NFL trade deadline approaches, Albert Breer breaks down the latest buzz on which teams might make a move—and which players could be on the block before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET cutoff.
- Matt Verderame identifies the biggest matchups and storylines for Week 9 and makes his predictions for the highly anticipated Chiefs-Bills showdown and other games across the NFL.
- With 11 FBS programs already searching for new head coaches, Sports Illustrated has the latest intel on who’s in the mix (and which jobs could open next) as the 2025 college football coaching carousel ramps up.
- The final reveal of Sports Illustrated’s men’s college basketball preseason Top 25 is here, highlighting the nation’s most complete and determined squad heading into the 2025–26 season.
- Kevin Sweeney projects the preseason men’s NCAA tournament field, with powerhouse programs leading the way and several sleepers ready to make noise when March Madness arrives.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Some nice passing by the Flames on a key third-period goal. (Calgary went on to lose to the Senators in a shootout.)
4. A blocked punt touchdown by Delaware State in the coaching matchup between former teammates DeSean Jackson (Delaware State) and Michael Vick (Norfolk State). Jackson’s team came out on top, 27–20.
3. The Medieval Times halftime show at Coastal Carolina’s game against Marshall.
2. A vicious block by Victor Wembanyama, followed by a slick coast-to-coast bucket.
1. Andre Burakovsky’s nasty between-the-legs goal. (And a great assist from Connor Bedard.)
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | LSU’s Mess Just Got Even Worse.
