Sources: LSU firing athletic director Scott Woodward days after Brian Kelly's termination

Just days after Brian Kelly was fired as LSU’s football coach, athletic director Scott Woodward is out, too.

According to Yahoo Sports sources, Woodward was fired not long after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) made it clear that Woodward would not be leading the Tigers’ search for a new football coach. Kelly was fired on Sunday after the Tigers fell to 5-3 with a home loss to Texas A&M.

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“This is a pattern,” Landry said Wednesday afternoon. “The guy here now [Woodward] that wrote that contract cost A&M $77 million. Right now, we have a $53 million liability and we are not doing that again. And you know what? I believe we’re going to find a great coach. Maybe we’ll let President Trump pick it. He loves winners.”

Shortly after the news of Woodward's departure was reported, LSU made it official Thursday night. In its statement, the school said that it and Woodward "had agreed to part ways."

“We thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director,” Board of Supervisors chair Scott Ballard said. “He had a lot of success at LSU, and we wish him nothing but the best in the future. Our focus now is on moving the athletic department forward and best positioning LSU to achieve its full potential.”

After LSU announced that Woodward was no longer the athletic director, he said that he preferred to "focus on the absolute joy that LSU Athletics brings to our state's residents and to the Baton Rouge community."

Woodward’s firing means LSU is now looking for a president and an athletic director, along with a football coach. The school is currently being led by interim president Matt Lee, but he was not among the three finalists for the permanent position that the school revealed Wednesday afternoon.

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Woodward, an LSU alum, came back to the school in 2019 from Texas A&M. While he was the athletic director who hired Jimbo Fisher and signed the former Florida State coach to a 10-year, $75 million contract, Woodward was well into his tenure at LSU when the Aggies signed Fisher to a contract extension through the 2031 season.

The contract Woodward signed Kelly to after the 2021 season to replace Ed Orgeron resulted in the school being on the hook for a $53 million buyout. Kelly was making just over $10 million in 2025 and his contract went through 2031.

Before hiring Kelly, Woodward hired Kim Mulkey to coach the women’s basketball team and the Tigers won the national championship in 2023. When he took over in April 2019, men’s basketball coach Will Wade had been recently reinstated from an indefinite suspension by the school amid the FBI’s college basketball investigation. Wade agreed to a redone contract later that month, but he was fired in March 2022 following an official NCAA notice of allegations.

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