Urban Meyer critical of Governor Jeff Landry having involvement in Brian Kelly firing

The LSU Tigers fired Brian Kelly after a 5-3 start to the season. That, in and of itself, was a big enough story to shock fans around the country. However, the involvement of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry made the move all the more intriguing.

On3’s Pete Nakos was among those to report that Landry inserted himself into the conversation following the loss to Texas A&M. He publicly took to social media as well, calling out potentially increased ticket prices. It’s difficult to say that it’s the reason why Brian Kelly got fired, but it certainly didn’t help his case.

One person who took note of all of that was Urban Meyer. The former head coach shared on The Triple Option a criticism of Jeff Landry, as well as some concern for what that means going forward for LSU football.

“First of all, in this great country, you have a right to hire and fire people as you wish,” Urban Meyer said. “You’ve got to pay the consequences and, obviously, when you start talking about fiscal responsibility to whoever. Is it taxpayers or is it students paying? What is this? I have some insight into this. I want to start with that, you have a right to do whatever you want to do. Right now, Brian Kelly after taxes and all this stuff, he’s probably walking away with $30 million. Cash. But, I think it’s fairly alarming the way it happened.”

When Brian Kelly was fired, he had a buyout of $53 million. That’s still being negotiated. Depending on where that money comes from, there’s an argument it could become Landry’s business. At the same time, it’s not similar to how things are done around college sports, even at public schools.

“The way it went down where the governor of the state of Louisiana was involved. I don’t know… if this really took place in the governor’s mansion,” Meyer said. “And if the governor and people, non-football people, are making the decision, as a coach, that’s an alarm. The alarm just went off. Saying, ‘Wait a minute. Really?'”

In the state of Louisiana, it’s not unheard of that a politician is heavily involved in LSU football. Huey Long, another Louisiana governor, even writing songs like The LSU Cadets March and Touchdown for LSU alongside Castro Carazo. Still, that was a long time ago now and fairly unique.

“Because we don’t know until it comes out. But I did make a call to a very strong Republican. A strong friend of mine, I’ve known for quite a while, and he is knee deep in New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. He said it absolutely happened. I kind of said, ‘Why would he?’ Are the streets safe in New Orleans? Is infrastructure set? The government budget, are they as a government being — I imagine there’s a lot of things on his plate,” Meyer said. “And now it’s hiring and firing coaches at their state institution. So, that was, and I don’t know the governor. They say this person loves the guy. Governor’s name is Jeff Landry. I hate to speculate, but in case that did happen to me, that changes the game.”

Notably, LSU is also currently without a school president and his hoping to fill the role soon. Still the governor’s involvement creates a major question for the next LSU head coach. Do you answer to Jeff Landry? If so, that’s something that Urban Meyer seemed like he would be uncomfortable with moving forward.

“If you’re now going to interview for the head coaching position at LSU, do you meet with the governor? Because normally, I’ve done it several times, you meet with the Board of Trustees,” Meyer said. “Obviously, the athletic director, the president, the academic rep for the university, and you kind of give them your plan. Then they make a decision to hire you, and then they hold you to that plan. So, the world I grew up in, whenever you make a decision, you’re held accountable for that decision. So, here’s the question. If the governor had a hand in firing the head football coach of an SEC school that won 70 percent of his games… and he did, does he get fired if the next hire doesn’t work out? This is not a hierarchy I’m used to.”

Certainly, Jeff Landry has been involved in LSU athletics since before the Brian Kelly firing. That included arguing that the LSU Women’s Basketball team needs to be on the floor for the national anthem. The team’s head coach, Kim Mulkey, said at the time that it wasn’t intentional.

There are plenty of questions left for LSU to answer in this coaching search. From how involved Landy is to how much they pay Kelly, only time will tell how things work out.