Another day, another weird twist in the LSU football coaching search.
A day after incoming LSU president Dr. Wade Rousse announced he would elevate interim athletic director Verge Ausberry to the full-time job, he suddenly backtracked on Wednesday. During an interview on Wednesday, Rousse was asked about the decision and didn’t seem to fully endorse his own move.
“I’ll remove the interim and then we’ll assess the situation. I can’t make a very good decision after being on the job for eight hours,” Rousse said. “I don’t know what permanent means versus removing the interim tag.”
Former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and the school agreed to part ways last week, days after Louisiana governor Jeff Landry sidelined him in the search for a coach to replace Brian Kelly. The Kelly saga in itself has been wild.
Kelly was fired on October 26 after a 5–3 start to the season. The school now owes him approximately $54 million after letting him go.
Rousse was named LSU’s next president on Tuesday and immediately announced he was removing the interim title from Ausberry because when trying to hire a coach, “Instability is not healthy.” It’s not hard to see the irony in that statement, given that 24 hours later, he was backpedaling.
This entire saga has been an absolute disaster for LSU. No one, from the governor to the university president to the athletic director, seems to be on the same page. No top coaching candidate is going to want to walk into a mess of a situation.
Verge Ausberry is on the clock
While it’s not a guarantee he’ll be in the big chair long, Ausberry is the man in the spotlight right now. The former LSU football player is in his 24th year as an employee of the athletic department. He has been the administrator for the football, gymnastics and women’s basketball programs and has served as executive deputy director of athletics since 2019.
Ausberry is now in charge of finding the next great coach for LSU. We’ll see if he can do that despite the chaos surrounding him.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as LSU's New President Reverses Course Less Than a Day After Athletic Director Decision.