LSU Interim Athletic Director Given Full Authority to Hire Brian Kelly's Replacement

LSU interim athletic director Verge Ausberry will have the authority to identity Brian Kelly's replacement as the school searches for a new football coach.

"We're going to hire the best football coach there is," he told reporters Friday. "That's our job. We are not going to let this program fail. LSU has to be in the playoffs every year in football. There's 12 teams that make it. It's going to expand here. We have to be one of those teams at LSU. No substitute."

Ausberry also seemed to downplay the likelihood of LSU prioritizing a more incentive-laden contract for the next head coach after Kelly's firing triggered a buyout of more than $53 million:

Ausberry was installed as the interim AD following Scott Woodward's exit Thursday.

The writing was on the wall for Woodward when Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he wouldn't make the final call on a new coach.

While removing Woodward and empowering Ausberry answers one question about the Tigers' search, there are still so many variables at play.

The next few weeks will be a great litmus test for how much LSU football on its own is a draw because the school's infrastructure is seriously lacking. It isn't an exaggeration to say almost nobody in a position of power in Baton Rouge is there on a permanent basis right now:

The governor, meanwhile, is making a show of inserting himself into the situation. In addition to his public press conference on Wednesday, he appeared Thursday on The Pat McAfee Show:

LSU won national championships in 2003, 2007 and 2019 with three different head coaches, and that's a compelling pitch to make to prospective candidates.

Still, the expectations with this job are among the most demanding in college football. Ed Orgeron didn't make it two full years after the 2019 title before the school arranged for him to step down in 2021. Kelly had a .708 winning percentage, yet a failure to make the College Football Playoff did him in.

When you throw all of the dysfunction behind the scenes into the mix, coaches who might otherwise jump at the chance to lead a program as prestigious as LSU could have some second thoughts.