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Scott Woodward is out as LSU's athletic director, the school announced Thursday night, just days after the Tigers fired head coach Brian Kelly amid a 5-3 season.
Verge Ausberry, the executive deputy athletic director, will be the interim athletic director.
"We thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director," said Scott Ballard, LSU's board of supervisors chair. "He had a lot of success at LSU, and we wish him nothing but the best in the future. Our focus now is on moving the athletic department forward and best positioning LSU to achieve its full potential."
Woodward drew the ire of Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who publicly criticized him multiple times this week. In a news conference Wednesday, Landry said that Woodward would not be hiring LSU's next football coach.
On the "Pat McAfee Show" on Thursday, Landry added: "There's a number of bad contracts that seem to have followed Scott Woodward."
The flurry of comments from Landry made Woodward's departure an inevitability. According to a source, the expectation is that Woodward will be paid out the more than $6 million he is owed on his contract.
Woodward is a longtime college administrator with a political background and an LSU graduate, the type of background suited for this brand of political football. He had been LSU's athletic director since 2019, a run that included a national title in football, the hiring of Kim Mulkey as basketball coach and the firing of men's coach Will Wade.
In the wake of Kelly's firing, Landry lambasted Woodward so bluntly and publicly that there was no clear path for him to keep his job.
In a dizzying week, Woodward went from firing Kelly to leaving a job that he'd coveted his whole career. At the 2019 news conference introducing him as athletic director, Woodward said: "Thomas Wolfe once said that you can't go home again. But clearly they've never been to Baton Rouge."
