The situation surrounding the LSU Tigers football team and athletic department has turned into a three-ring circus. And Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is its ringmaster.
Landry has become the face of the drama in Baton Rouge thanks to his hands-on involvement in Tigers athletics. He was personally involved in the decision to fire Brian Kelly and has been outspoken about his frustration with the cost of Kelly’s buyout and the bill facing the state due to the contract signed with the state university.
The governor then went a step further, saying that he would not allow LSU athletic director Scott Woodward to hire the next football coach at the school, unilaterally dictating that he would turn it over to the Board of Supervisors. Although Landry has said he would not personally hire the next coach, the board is nominated by, you guessed it, the governor. By Thursday evening, Woodward had announced his departure from the school.
The deep involvement of a sitting governor in an individual school’s athletic department is unprecedented in modern sports. And it led LSU alum Ryan Clark to blast Landry on ESPN’s First Take for his treatment of Woodward and meddling in something that he has no experience in. He also called out Landry for wanting to put a statue of Charlie Kirk on the LSU campus after the polarizing conservative political influencer was assassinated earlier this year.
For someone who has said that he’s got more important things to do for the people of Louisiana than micromanage a football program, Jeff Landry has spent a lot of time talking about the LSU football program. He went on a media tour on Thursday that included stops nationally with Pat McAfee and locally on ESPN Radio Baton Rouge with host Matt Moscona.
Unfortunately for the governor, it was there that he gave ammunition to his critics that he’s overstepping his boundaries and turning the LSU situation into a nationwide joke by talking about LSU failing to make the Bowl Championship Series.
“How is the program progressing? What are we winning? Are we winning SEC Championships? Are we winning national championships? Are we getting to the Bowl Championship Series? Those are things that say the team is winning. We would not be having this discussion at all had LSU not be having the season that it is,” Landry said. “The chance of getting to the Bowl Championship Series at this point is pretty null. It’d be great if they did, but think about it. If we would not have lost that game or lost one game right now in the SEC we wouldn’t be talking about that because Brian, Coach Kelly wouldn’t be having a problem.”
Of course, the Bowl Championship Series hasn’t been a thing since all the way back in 2013. Since 2014, college football has decided its champion in the College Football Playoff. Last year’s edition was the first year where it was expanded to 12 teams from its original four-team lineup. LSU has only made one CFP appearance in 2019 when it was able to win the national championship thanks to its incredible offense led by Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow.
LSU is now faced with having no permanent president, athletic director, or head coach. But it does have an overzealous governor in Jeff Landry, who doesn’t even know what what year it is in terms of college football championships. What could go wrong from here?
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