Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry Clarifies He Won't Pick LSU HC to Replace Brian Kelly

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said Thursday he won't choose who LSU hires to replace former football coach Brian Kelly.

Landry addressed the topic on ESPN's Pat McAfee Show, one day after telling reporters athletic director Scott Woodward would not choose LSU's head coach.

The decision will instead be left up to LSU's Board of Supervisors, Landry said.

Nine of the board's 18 members have been appointed by Landry since he took office in 2024, per the Associated Press' Brett Martel. Landry will be able to appoint four more board members when previous terms expire in 2026, Martel noted.

"Emphatically, I am not picking the coach. That is not my job," Landry told McAfee. "The only reason I'm really involved, Pat, is because this contract that currently is between the state of Louisiana, the Louisiana State University system and Brian Kelly leaves the taxpayers of the state on the bill."

Landry continued, saying: "That contract binds the state of Louisiana—if we have to pay $53 million, and somebody else doesn't step up to foot that bill, the state of Louisiana has to foot that bill. That is in the contract."

LSU fired Kelly last Sunday after a 5-3 start to the season. His contract with LSU featured a buyout of $53.3 million, per USA Today.

Kelly's final game with the program was a 49-25 loss to visiting Texas A&M on Saturday, eight games into his fourth season with the program. Landry criticized LSU on social media following the loss.

The decision to fire Kelly was made on Sunday evening following a meeting between donors, university board members, athletic officials and political representatives at Landry's official residence, Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger reported.

LSU was still finalizing the terms of Kelly's buyout as of Wednesday, a spokesperson told the Lafayette Daily Advertiser's Cory Diaz.

Board of Supervisors chairman Scott Ballard, who was appointed by Landry in January, told WDSU's Travers Mackel on Monday the buyout would not involve "taking anything here from education or academics or the educational side."

"This is purely for athletics, meaning it's not coming from the English department or the French department or the business school or money that would go to scholarships that we are diverting here, no," Ballard told Mackel.

Ballard also added that Landry "is not pulling the strings to make decisions and getting involved on who to hire and what lines to write in the contract."

Landry first addressed Kelly's firing during a press conference Wednesday, when he pointed out that Woodward was also the athletic director at Texas A&M when the program hired Jimbo Fisher. The contract buyout involved in firing Fisher later became the most expensive in college football history.

"Right now, we've got a $53 million liability. We are not doing that again... maybe we'll led President Trump pick it. He loves winners," Landry said Wednesday. "I'm not going to be picking the next coach. But I can promise you, we're going to pick a coach, and we're going to make sure that that coach is successful."

When asked if Woodward would be making LSU's next hiring decision, Landry answered, "No. I can tell you right now, Scott Woodward is not selecting the next coach. Hell, I'll let Donald Trump select it before I let him do it.... The Board of Supervisors is going to come up with a committee, and they're going to go find us a coach."

Landry went on to expand his criticism to include the entirety of the NCAA when speaking with McAfee, saying the organization needs to "start putting guardrails around all this money."

The Louisiana governor also told McAfee that Kelly and Woodward shared an agent, and that such overlap shouldn't be allowed by the NCAA going forward.

Woodward has not publicly confirmed having hired an agent, although Kelly is represented by Athletes First's Trace Armstrong. ESPN's Chris Low and M.A. Voepel reported in 2023 that Armstrong "helped Woodward with one of his contracts at LSU" and was "close to both Kelly and Woodward."

Woodward was hired by LSU in 2019, almost five years before Landry was sworn into office in 2024. It would cost the program another $6.8 million to buy out the rest of Woodward's contract, which currently runs through 2029.