Some Louisiana State University students are worried that Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry’s vocality about picking a new coach could make it hard for LSU to land a new coach.
LSU football coach Brian Kelly was fired in the fourth season of a 10-year, $100 million deal, the day after a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M.
LSU mass communication sophomore Grace Kone said that, as a football fan, she supported the decision to fire Kelly.
“I never agreed with him becoming our coach in the first place, and especially with him having such a big buyout. I never agreed with that,” Kone said.
A buyout contract is the amount of money expected to be paid by the school if they fire a coach. Kelly having such a big buyout seemed “irresponsible” to Kone.
“The LSU football program is huge and it has a lot of money coming in and out,”she said. “It just seems irresponsible to trust someone with that much money.”
Not only did the buyout concern Kone, but Landry has also expressed concern that the state will have to pay the near $54 million buyout.
The day of Kelly’s firing, Landry said he hosted a meeting in the governor’s mansion “to discuss the legalities of the contract.”
However, Kone said it was important to note that Landry is not directly picking the coach; he is picking members of the committee.
“I think it would be worse if he was picking the coach himself personally, but he did mention that he has concerns about having such big buyouts as Kelly did, and I do think that is good because it shows he cares,” Kone said.
Kone said in day-to-day life she feels like Landry is overtly involved in the governing of LSU, although she noted he’s been more present this semester since LSU didn’t have a president. However, Kone mentioned she found Landry’s remarks about U.S. President Donald Trump picking a new coach is weird.
“[Landry] said he would rather Donald Trump pick the next head coach over the previous athletic director, which I thought was very interesting because the athletic director was somebody that works for LSU, and if we don’t trust him then why was he hired?” Kone said.
Days after Kelly’s firing, Landry told reporters at a press conference that LSU’s athletic director, Scott Woodward, would not be selecting the next football coach. The next day, LSU cut ties with Woodward.
Kone was not the only student who agreed with the decision to fire Kelly. Kaiya Glaude, a sophomore kinesiology major, gave a similar perspective.
“I feel like Bryan Kelly was given his chance to make a change with LSU football and I feel like his character and the environment he was creating wasn’t what was best for our team,” Glaude said.
Glaude expanded that she believes that their coach should represent where we are and should be someone from the south.
“That culture of Louisiana is really important and I feel like it’s integral to LSU. If we don’t have someone that’s representing that, the program isn’t gonna be at its best,” she said.
From what Glaude understood, Kelly wasn’t allowing past players to come back, and in her opinion, that was creating a “hostile and closed environment”.
“It’s not allowing wisdom from people in the past and other perspectives. It seemed like he only wanted his perspective and he didn’t want anyone else to come,” Glaude said.
Glaude shared that she doesn’t think Landry has any reason to be involved in hiring a new coach at all.
“I know LSU is a public school and receives government funding. However, first of all, Brian Kelly’s buyout is being 100 percent privately funded so nothing is coming from a public budget,” she said.
Glaude continued saying that Landry’s involvement is mixing sports and politics and it could be harmful to team morale.
“I just feel like allowing politics into sports is setting a bad precedent. I think that sports is about bringing people together based on where you’re from, not about division,” Glaude said.
Kone and Glaude both agreed that LSU feels pressure to do what Landry wants, but at the end of the day, they feel confident that LSU will get funding no matter what.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
