Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
After the most tumultuous week for LSU athletics in virtually anyone’s living memory — firing the football coach and the athletic director back-to-back for the first time since 1955 — LSU seemed to be getting its administrative house in order and the search for football coach Brian Kelly’s replacement into gear. LSU hired McNeese State’s Wade Rousse as its new systems president and named Alabama’s James Dalton as the new LSU systems VP and Baton Rouge campus chancellor. Good moves, as running the LSU system and its flagship campus is a huge job. Per numerous media reports, LSU also decided to make interim athletic director Verge Ausberry the full-time successor to Scott Woodward. That all happened Tuesday. By Wednesday, things appeared to change. Note the word “appeared.” In an interview with the Louisiana Illuminator’s Piper Hutchinson, Rousse said of the Ausberry decision: “I'll remove the interim (title) and then we'll assess the situation. I can't make a very good decision after being on that on the job for eight hours …” Then, Rousse added: “I don’t know what permanent means versus removing the interim.” Um … what? I’ve interviewed literally thousands of people, and sometimes you catch them off guard with a question. I get that, and frankly, it’s not a position I would like to be in. But Rousse shouldn’t have been caught off guard by a question about Ausberry’s status. Especially since Friday, LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott Ballard said Ausberry has full authority to conduct the coaching search. The plot thickens. Wednesday afternoon in an interview on WWL radio with Bobby Hebert and Mike Detillier, Rousse said: “I removed the interim tag (from Ausberry). He’s the acting AD. He has my full authority to go find us a coach for the best job in America.” Acting AD. Not interim. Or permanent. Rousse was not pressed in the interview as to what he meant by “acting AD.” OK, hold all that in your head, as the plot thickens further. The Advocate has learned that Wednesday morning, Ausberry sent out an email to members of the LSU “athletics community” saying that Rousse and the LSU Board of Supervisors would be announcing his “appointment as permanent athletics director soon.” The signature on the email referred to Ausberry as “athletics director.” Sources said at some point Wednesday that it appeared LSU wants to get through the coaching search, with Ausberry running said search, then Rousse will make a decision on whether Ausberry will continue as the full-time athletic director beyond that. One last bit: Rousse also told Hutchinson, “When you’re trying to hire a coach, instability is not healthy.” Indeed it is not. For one brief, shining moment, it appeared LSU was steering away from instability. Then Wednesday happened. Please bear in mind, dear reader, that as I write this something new may have been added to the mix. The one silver lining in all of this, if silver linings can be applied, is that if you hire the right football coach, a powerful football coach, a highly successful coach, you can get everyone to get into line. A meddling governor, a contradicting systems president, the chancellor (fortunately no one has heard from him), the board, the athletic director (whoever that ends up being). Everyone. Tout le monde. No one wants to mess with a successful football coach, especially at a place like LSU. Despite all this uncertainty and, yes, downright embarrassment for LSU, there is still time for the school to get its house in order and hire a coach. A top-shelf coach, one with the confidence to know he can rise above all the politics and folly and, actually, lead. It’s worth remembering that after the school fired football coach Gus Tinsley and AD Skipper Heard at the same time 70 years ago, it ushered in the Paul Dietzel coaching era. A phoenix can indeed sometimes rise from the ashes. Whatever you think of Ausberry as the choice, for the search, for acting athletic director, for the permanent gig, it’s worth considering a few things. Ausberry played football for LSU. He is from New Iberia, so he knows Louisiana. He loves LSU, has a competitive fire and passionately wants LSU to succeed in football. He’s been involved in every football coaching search dating back to Nick Saban a quarter-century ago. And, perhaps most importantly, he understands politics. His wife, Cheri, is the daughter and brother of former New Orleans mayors Dutch and Marc Morial. And there’s no way he could have lasted in the athletic department, including through the school’s sexual harassment scandal that resulted in his 30-day suspension for his part in failing to report and respond to allegations of sexual assault by LSU athletes, if he couldn’t survive politically. “I have the utmost confidence in our athletic director to get the best coach for the best job in America,” Rousse said on WWL. That confidence, that search, is being tried by the fire of what is unfortunately typical Louisiana-looking dysfunction. Staff writer Wilson Alexander contributed to this report.
