Overview
- Landry said LSU athletic director Scott Woodward will not choose the next football coach and quipped he would let President Donald Trump pick before Woodward, while insisting he is not personally making the hire.
- The governor said the LSU Board of Supervisors will form a committee to run the search, a move that sidelines the athletic department in an unusually public political intervention.
- On The Pat McAfee Show, Landry doubled down on claims taxpayers could be liable for Kelly’s buyout if donors do not pay, a position contradicted by Board Chairman Scott Ballard, who says self-generated athletic funds and private donors will cover it.
- Local reporting has corrected several of Landry’s statements, noting Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M buyout was negotiated after Woodward left and that Kelly and Fisher do not share the same agent.
- Commentators and LSU alumnus Ryan Clark criticized Landry’s involvement as damaging to the search’s credibility, as the university proceeds with Frank Wilson as interim coach following Kelly’s firing.