LSU coaching search: AD Scott Woodward's job could be in danger after Brian Kelly firing

Brian Kelly may not be the only one on the way out of LSU, according to one college football insider. Josh Pate said Tuesday during an episode of Josh Pate’s College Football Show that he is hearing rumblings that athletic director Scott Woodward could get the boot.

Woodward has been the Tigers AD since 2019 after spending a few years in the same position at Texas A&M. Pate pointed to the fact that LSU also does not currently have a president, citing the importance for alignment. Given how things are right now, a clean slate might be what the university wants.

“Alignment is something that’s been in a state of flux there, to say the least,” Pate said. “They don’t have a president. The governor’s swinging around. Scott Woodward’s there today, is he gonna be there next week? What I’m hearing is maybe not, so I don’t even necessarily know if he’s the one running point on this coaching search. That’s the athletic director for those unfamiliar. I haven’t been crazy with the job he’s done there anyway, so if I were an LSU fan that would kind of be music to my ears.”

Other than Kelly, Woodward also made a big splash when he lured women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey away from Baylor. Mulkey led LSU to a national championship in 2023. Woodward was also responsible for hiring current Tigers baseball coach Jay Johnson, which won a championship this past season.

Given the success of those hires, it might seem a bit odd to let Scott Woodward go. But Pate again stressed the importance of having all of the adminstration be on the same page.

“Alignment, in a day and age where we are seeing that you can win big at Indiana,” he said. “And if you can do it at Indiana, respectfully, you can do it at a lot of other places if you staff properly and you have proper alignment and investment. No one is just crawling over broken glass to get these jobs anymore if they don’t have alignment. So if you’re LSU, are you one of the best jobs in the country? Yes, I think so. You getter have alignment. Because it doesn’t matter how great Tiger Stadium looks and all the bright lights at night. The cosmetics of the job are irrelevant if the criticals aren’t in the order they should be in.”