Was it really a decision of plain-sense economics or was it one of motive-driven politics when Gov. Jeff Landry said on Monday, “I can tell you right now, “SCOTT WOODWARD WILL NOT BE SELECTING THE NEXT LSU COACH”?
On the surface of it, Landry made a lot of sense in criticizing the two multi-year, mega-million-dollar payouts of football coaches’ contracts negotiated by Woodward at Texas A&M (Jimbo Fisher’s $77 million) and LSU (Brian Kelly’s $53 million).
But the LOUISIANA ILLUMINATOR may have – inadvertently or otherwise – revealed a political motive as well as an economically prudent one when it noted that Landry “bench Democrat LSU athletic director Scott Woodward from picking the next LSU football coach…” (emphasis mine)
Stressing that “I’m not going to be picking the next coach,” Gov. Squeaky Toy said that the LSU Board of Supervisors would come up with a COMMITTEE which would “go find us a coach.”
But wait. Squeaky Toy has complete control over the Board of Supervisors and, by extension, utter dominance over the selection of said committee and its subsequence decision over the selection of a new coach.
That, on its surface, would appear that by taking the choice of a next coach out of the hands of Woodward, Landry is making a 100 percent political decision and injecting partisan politics into the hiring of a coach. That, in turn, is going to scare a lot of would-be candidates into running from, not toward, LSU for their next coaching job.
And for anyone who for a nanosecond believes that Landry is going to resist the opportunity to have a say in the selection process, I have some gold moon rocks I’ll sell you cheap.
What coach of any credible reputation would want to inject himself into that position? Why, it’s almost like some crazy person wanting to become the next LSU president. Wait. That’s already happening, isn’t it because Dr. William Tate got fed up with having to be Landry’s mouthpiece some time back and fled for Rutgers University.
I can’t say I disagree with Landry’s antipathy toward multi-year, multi-million-dollar contracts. Saying he was “tired of rewarding failure,” he said, “We are not going down a failed path. This is a pattern. Right now, we’ve got a $53 million liability,” Landry said. “We are not doing that again.”
Most everything he said up to that point sounded good. But then, like the yam-colored Frito Bandito, Landry couldn’t stop there. He just had to say, “Maybe we can get President Trump to pick [the next coach]. He knows winners.”
Yeah, sure. Just look at some of his appointees and identify the “winners.” Even Trump calls them losers after they split and split, they always ultimately do.
But back to LSU. Scott Woodward, hired in May 2019, is in year six of one of those multi-year (10-years in his case) contracts that pays him a grand total of $1.85 million per year. That’s $18.5 million over the life of his contract which expires on April 30, 2029.
(Click on + at top of illustration to magnify; scroll down to read all pages)
Of that $1.85 million per year, $525,000 (($5.25 million over 10 years) is paid by the university with the remainder) $1.325 million per year coming as “supplemental pay,” meaning a chunk of his salary, as well as that of Kelly’s, is picked up by private contributors to the Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF).
That contract is actually between the LSU Board of Supervisors, Ryan Eric, LLC and Scott Woodward. Ryan Eric, LLC is a corporate entity set up by Woodward, apparently for tax purposes, and whose corporate address is the same as that of Woodward.
The main responsibility of any school’s AD, by definition, is to hire personnel and negotiate contracts. And he ain’t done too badly with the hire of Kim Mulkey for women’s basketball, Jay Clark for gymnastics or Jay Johnson for baseball. Between them, LSU has four national championships in four years.
So, with Squeaky Toy’s stepping in and usurping Woodward’s authority, what can we expect of Woodward in the future? What’s he going to do to earn the remainder of that $18.5 mil? What authority does he have left, administering concession and season ticket sales (another sore point, considering the hike in ticket prices and tailgate parking permits during a down season for LSU football)?
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Squeaky Toy pull some stunt to gain control over those as well.
So, don’t be surprised if Woodward bids the Ole War Skule arrivederci and buenas noches (if he’s bilingual) at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Louisiana Voice 
My illustration of Landry
Landry has screwed the pooch and LSU will pay the price. He chooses to either lie to or gaslight voters or both concerning professional sports contracts. Every major college head coach and all NFL coaches have similar contracts to Kelly’s. Landry also chooses to lies to voters – because he knows the truth – as to who is on the hook for Kelly’s buyout. But Landry’s real purpose is revealed in the way he deliberately slanders Woodward’s professional resume. Scott Woodward is not responsible for the contract given to Jimbo Fisher, or the extensions that kicked in the massive buyouts. That was the former AD at Texas A&M Ross Bjork, now the AD at Ohio State. Woodward negotiated Fisher’s buyout when boosters were done with Fisher and he couldn’t have fired Fisher without the booster buy in. To lay all that on Woodward is a flat out lie. Also Landry fails to mention Woodward hired Kim Mulkey, Jay Johnson, and Jay Clark all of whom won national championships at LSU. Johnson has won two and may be on the verge of a Bertman-like dynasty. But the worst part of Landry’s involvement is as Tom describes. No coach worth his salt will come to a school where the athletic department is run by the governor via tweet or press conference. Nor will it matter if we go back to the bad of days when the Board of Stupidvisors regularly usurped the athletic director to make coaching hires and LSU was an irrelevant backwater. That all ended when Mark Emmert, for all his flaws, was named president. But whoever is named president now will be a rubber stamp for the board who are a rubber stamp for Landry and his main purpose will be to fight Landry’s fascist education culture war, not seek out a competent athletic director and let him or her do the job. LSU fans need to prepare for a decade of mediocrity.
Well said!