It sure sounds like Louisiana governor Jeff Landry is fed up with LSU athletic director Scott Woodward.

On Wednesday, Landry was asked about the open head football coaching job at the university and he pretty openly blasted Woodward's handling of his last two big hires.

Woodward was the athletic director at Texas A&M when the school hired Jimbo Fisher to a 10-year, $75 million contract that was fully guaranteed. Woodward left for the LSU job in 2019, and Fisher was given a contract extension before the 2021 season. When he was fired by the Aggies in '23, his buyout was $77.5 million, which was the largest in college football history.

After firing Ed Orgeron during the 2021 season, Woodward hired Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame on a fully guaranteed 10-year, $95 million contract. Kelly didn't last a full four seasons and was fired last week after going 34–14 overall and 19–10 in the SEC. His contract buyout will cost LSU upwards of $53 million (before offsets from any new job Kelly lands).

So Woodward has hired the two coaches who wound up being fired with the two biggest buyouts in college football history. Landry was quick to point that out.

"We are not going down a failed path, and I want to tell you something, this is a pattern," Landry said. "The guy that's here now that wrote that contract cost Texas A&M $77 million. Right now, we've got a $53 million liability. We're not doing that again... I'm not gonna be picking the next coach, but I can promise you we're gonna pick a coach and we're gonna make sure that coach is successful, and we're gonna make sure that he's compensated properly."

He added, "I can tell you right now, Scott Woodward is not selecting the next coach. Hell, I'll let Donald Trump select it before I let him."

His full comments are below.

That's not an ambiguous answer. It's fair to wonder whether Woodward will be at LSU much longer after this whole catastrophe.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Louisiana Governor Forcefully Sidelines LSU AD As Tigers Enter Coaching Search.