LIVE Blog: Interview with LSU interim head coach Frank Wilson
LSU interim head coach Frank Wilson spoke with the local media for the first time since Brian Kelly was fired.
What does the rest of the season hold for Wilson and the current staff in Baton Rouge?
Are there changes to come with the program as the page turns to the search for LSU Football’s next head coach?
LSU fans can refresh this story for running updates and more from Wilson’s first press conference as the interim head coach of the Tigers.
Frank Wilson makes his opening statements
10/28/2025 05:04:15 PMWilson said Tuesday’s practice included “Tiger Bowl”, which gives every player a chance to get involved – with starters serving as coaches and backups and reserves taking center stage. The practice began with individual drills, with Wilson said the focus of the day and bye week ahead is both self-scouting and attention to detail with technique, the playbook, and more.
How the past 48 hours played out since Kelly’s firing
10/28/2025 05:13:01 PM“It’s a tremendously humbling moment for myself … I started out as a junior high coach,” Wilson said of being named LSU Football’s interim head coach. “I am a part of the fiber of this state. I am extremely humbled and extremely honored to be given this opportunity. It’s something you dream of and don’t know if it could ever come true. But it’s something you prepare for, and I know this opportunity is so much bigger than me. I am just the caretaker. I will do my very best, and die trying, to represent us as a community and state.”
LSU staff shuffle has already happened
10/28/2025 05:18:34 PMAnalyst Tim Rattay will be LSU’s quarterbacks coach, while former tight ends coach Alex Atkins will step into the offensive coordinator role following the school’s decision to part ways with Joe Sloan. Wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton will take on a bigger role in the final four games, while the defensive staff will stay in place with the assistants that have coached this season.
No players have opted out of the remainder of the season
10/28/2025 05:17:41 PMWilson said there have been no LSU players who, within the first 48 hours of Kelly’s firing, have chosen to opt out of the rest of the season – whether that be to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal or other reasons.
“We have bonded” in the days after Kelly’s firing
10/28/2025 05:19:05 PM“It’s a testament to our players and coaching staff … let’s stay close and stay together and finish what we started,” Wilson said when asked what he’s seen from the program’s players and staff in the days after Sunday’s firing of Kelly. With LSU on bye week, Wilson said the norm has been for players and staff to take time away, but there has been a shift on Monday and Tuesday as the players and coaches have “spent more time around each other”. Wilson said it’s been clear following Tuesday’s practice that the unified rally call has been “we are all in.”
What led to LSU and Kelly not reaching expectations?
10/28/2025 05:25:06 PM“I don’t think one thing went wrong,” Wilson said. “When you come here there is a standard that is demanded that we all try to achieve. When we don’t, people in authority see it as not a fit.”
Wilson’s thoughts on being the next head coach (or not)
10/28/2025 05:25:38 PMWilson said LSU Athletics Director Scott Woodward did not address his future relative to conversations on his chances of becoming the next head coach of LSU following the decision to name him as the interim head coach for the rest of October and through November.
The reason behind no recruits decommitting after the change
10/28/2025 05:32:46 PM“They have questions, but the good thing is, we have answers,” Wilson said.
Wilson said the key has been getting the team in a “really “good head space” given the commits and recruits being targeted by the staff often talk to current players away from conversations with the coaches or on-campus visits to meet with the staff, and the current players on roster have let recruits know “we’re good” and “things have been stabilized” to a level where they have not had any decommitments and don’t expect a mass exodus of commits as they inch closer to the Early Signing Period in December.
“I can’t” use the coming month-plus as a resume builder
10/28/2025 05:34:53 PMWhen asked if the coming weeks and months are a resume builder for Wilson, his response was clear. “I can’t,” he said. “I have to be where my feet are … I have to be in this moment. To do anything besides that would be a mistake.”