New LSU president elevates Verge Ausberry to full-time AD amid coaching search to replace Brian Kelly

LSU had an eventful week that thrust the athletic department into chaos. But after a week of turmoil, the new power structure at the school has begun to clarify. 

Back-to-back losses led to the firing of football coach Brian Kelly, which was followed by an attention-grabbing press conference from governor Jeff Landry insisting athletic director Scott Woodward would not be involved in the hire of Kelly's replacement. Woodward was then fired later in the week. All the while, LSU was still without a university president. 

This week, Wade Rousse left McNeese State to become LSU's new president and his first order of business was to elevate interim athletic director Verge Ausberry to the full-time position, sources told CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz. Ausberry played linebacker at LSU and has spent the past 24 years in the athletic department, including the last six as the executive deputy athletic director. His hire doesn't come without some controversy, as he was suspended back in 2021 for his role in improperly handling complaints of physical and sexual abuse levied against LSU athletes. 

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Landry's brash, boastful press conference in which he went after Woodward and Jimmy Sexton, the most powerful coaching agent in the business, made many wonder if the LSU job would be all that desirable to coaches given the apparent power vacuum at the school that the governor seemed more than happy to fill. A week later, with Rousse now in place as president, LSU seems determined to show some stability and order to tamp down those concerns about who was in charge of what in Baton Rouge -- something Ausberry alluded to in an interview with 104.5 ESPN in Baton Rouge on Tuesday. 

"That alignment means a lot," Ausberry said. "And if you don't have leadership, you have a void there, it really, really hurts you out there going out in the market. People want to know who they report to and who they answer to. That's very, very important in our system."

Verge Ausberry lays out vision for LSU coaching search

Ausberry's decades in Baton Rouge give him plenty of sway with other powerful figures at the school and plenty of support within the football program, which he's worked most closely with in his time in the athletic department. By moving quickly to get the school and athletic department's leadership vacancies filled, LSU can now begin crafting its plan for bringing in a new football coach who will come in knowing exactly what the expectations are in Baton Rouge. 

Making the College Football Playoff is a must and championships are the expectation. 

"We're going to hire the best football coach there is," Ausberry said last 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."

To get there, Ausberry laid out his vision of how the Tigers can get back to that place, noting its his job as AD (at the time interim, but now full-time) to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support the coach so he has everything needed at his disposal to win.

"We have to make sure we have the right mechanisms in place to help that new coach, no matter who that new coach is," Ausberry said. "I think the days of seeing a coach win five, six national championships, that's not going to be the same, especially with the rev sharing. We just have to make sure what we're doing here and what we have in place and the infrastructure that we have here at LSU is good enough to support the coach so that every year. Tonight the College Football Playoff [rankings] come out, so every year we need to be mentioned in that."

After the disaster that was the Brian Kelly era, Ausberry seems to be prioritizing fit in this upcoming hiring process. Kelly never felt like a comfortable fit for LSU as a coach who built his résumé in the Midwest moving to the South, where his attempts to fit in always felt forced. 

"All of these coaches can coach X's and O's," Ausberry said. "They can draw it up, they can call plays, they can do all of that. But are they the right fit for the institution and are they the right fit at LSU?"

Ausberry added that they'll be looking for a coach with head-coaching experience and confirmed that they would be willing to wait for a coach to finish with the Playoff, even if it means having to go through the early signing date and running up close to the portal window. 

That indicates LSU will largely be pursuing the biggest names on the market to fulfill those desires. And with Ausberry's interim tag removed, the school will hope to quell any questions or concerns from those candidates about who they will be answering to in the athletic department and above.