Tag: Scott Woodward

Could former LSU head coach Will Wade end up at a conference rival?

Wade’s name is popping up in an SEC coaching search.

Former LSU basketball coach [autotag]Will Wade[/autotag] is back in the news with his name surfacing for another SEC job.

According to Jeff Goodman, Wade’s name has gained traction for the newly open Ole Miss job.

Wade was fired from LSU in March of 2022 following the report into LSU’s recruiting violations, but neither he nor LSU’s program have yet to receive any form of sanction.

Along with Wade, Goodman also reports that Chris Beard and Dusty May are candidates.

At LSU, Wade went 105-51 with a 55-33 record in conference. The highlight of his tenure was in 2019 when he led LSU to an SEC title. LSU advanced to the Sweet 16, but Wade was sidelined following the alleged NCAA infractions.

Wade was set to return LSU to the NCAA Tournament again in 2020 before the season was upended by COVID-19. In 2021, Wade’s Tigers won a round of 64 game before falling to Michigan in the round of 32.

Wade was fired before the NCAA Tournament began in 2022. After all that, Wade coached just one NCAA Tournament at LSU.

Ole Miss, which has made the NCAA Tournament just five times this century and been ranked in the final AP Poll just once, is looking for someone to bring its program to relevance. Wade, who has raised the bar everywhere he’s been, could be that guy.

Not coaching this year, Wade has recently begun a podcast with Baton Rouge sports commentator Jordy Culotta.

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LSU announces new ‘Bayou Traditions’ NIL collective

LSU announced a step forward in the name, image and likeness game on Monday.

LSU is taking another step with its NIL game.

On Monday, LSU announced “Bayou Traditions” and named it the “official collective of LSU athletics.”

“Bayou Traditions is a new way LSU fans can support the success of our championship athletic programs and our elite student-athletes in the NIL era,” athletic director [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] said in a release.

“Bayou Traditions” will give fans a chance to contribute monthly and one-time donations. It also becomes the presenting sponsor of LSU Gold, LSU’s streaming service that delivers exclusive video content to fans.

According to a report, the president of TCU’s NIL collective will make an impact with LSU’s new collective.

The release stated that TAF, the Tiger Athletic Foundation, will remain the sole philanthropic arm of LSU Athletics.

NIL became legalized across the NCAA in the summer of 2021. College football will be entering its third year of the NIL era in 2023. One figures this collective should make a significant impact on LSU’s efforts.

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LSU to open 2027 football season against Houston at NRG Stadium

The Tigers hold a 2-1 record all-time against the Cougars with the last contest coming in 2000.

LSU will open its 2027 slate with a contest against a Big 12 team.

The Tigers will travel to NRG Stadium in Houston for what will be a nominal neutral site game against the Houston Cougars in the Texas Kickoff. The Cougs are set to move to the Power Five from the American starting in 2023.

This will be LSU’s third time participating in the Texas Kickoff, with the previous games coming against Wisconsin in 2014 and BYU in 2016. The latter game was moved to New Orleans due to flooding in Houston the week of the game.

The Tigers most recently played at NRG Stadium in the Texas Bowl after the 2021 season, which it lost to Kansas State.

“The city of Houston and the entire area of southeast Texas continues to be vital to the success of LSU, not only our football program, but the entire university,” coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] said in a release. “With more LSU alumni in that region than any other location outside of the state of Louisiana, it’s important that we have a strong presence in this area and this season-opening matchup will certainly enhance and strengthen the LSU brand in the state of Texas.”

LSU has certainly made recruiting the state of Texas a priority, as five of its 25 signees in 2023 hail from the Lone Star State. The state also has quite a few Tigers fans in residence, as athletics director [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] said in the release.

“It’s always exciting when our football program gets the opportunity to compete in Texas, where so many LSU fans and alumni reside,” he said. “We know our supporters will be just as excited to cheer on the Tigers to kick off the 2027 season, and we look forward to a memorable contest.”

This will be the third contest against Houston in program history. The last came in 2000 when LSU won 28-13 at home. The Tigers hold the all-time series lead at 2-1.

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LSU women’s basketball unveils Seimone Augustus statue

Augustus’ statue was unveiled in a ceremony outside the PMAC in front of a huge crowd.

[autotag]Seimone Augustus[/autotag]’ presence will forever be felt outside Pete Maravich Assembly Center. LSU honored the legend with a statue on Sunday.

Augustus played at LSU from 2002-06, where she has a strong argument as the greatest player in program history. She spent 15 years playing professional basketball, and she was a four-time champion and eight-time all-star in the WNBA.

Here’s a video of Kim Mulkey helping to pull the cover off the statue prior to the game.

Augustus is the first female athlete in LSU history to get a statue. Her number was previously retired in 2010. Athletic director [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] said Augustus helped transform LSU women’s basketball.

She was a two-time SEC player of the year and the top overall pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft. She was national player of the year in her senior campaign and helped lead LSU to three final fours.

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The 8 moments that defined LSU athletics in 2022

2022 was quite a year on the bayou.

It was a wild year for LSU.

We saw coaches get fired and hired. Hearts were broken by blocked extra-points and put back together with game-winning two-point conversions. There were improbable comebacks and squandered opportunities.

New arrivals, like [autotag]Harold Perkins[/autotag] and [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag], excelled on the field and on the court. Meanwhile, bona fide stars like baseball’s [autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag] and gym’s [autotag]Haleigh Bryant[/autotag] did their thing, too.

Stories about NIL and the transfer portal dominated the discussion around college sports, and it was no different at LSU with football and baseball signing transfer after transfer and gym’s [autotag]Olivia Dunne[/autotag] signing NIL deal after NIL deal.

Here’s a look at the stories that defined LSU in 2022.

Five things for LSU fans to be thankful for this year

In honor of Thanksgiving, here’s what LSU fans should be thankful for this holiday season.

The Tigers’ athletic department has a proud tradition of contending: not just in football, but in sports across the board.

When I began covering this team back in March, it seemed like the program was at something of a low point. The football team had just brought in [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] after back-to-back disappointing campaigns, while the basketball program was closing up a disappointing finish to a season that started strong and ultimately ended with the dismissal of [autotag]Will Wade[/autotag].

To add onto that, the baseball program had a new coach in [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag], who was tasked with replacing the legendary [autotag]Paul Mainieri[/autotag], and [autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag] was in her first season trying to take the women’s basketball program to the next level. Change was the defining theme of this athletics department under [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] just a few months ago.

But eight months later, and there seems to be an entirely new outlook for a number of LSU sports. With so much change in 2022 — much of it positive — here’s what Tigers fans have to be thankful for this holiday season.

Paul Finebaum says Brian Kelly was a home-run hire

Finebaum had high praise for the early returns under Kelly.

When LSU hired [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] away from Notre Dame, there were a lot of questions about whether he would fit in with everyone else in the SEC. It didn’t ease anyone’s opinions when he used his ‘southern accent’ in one of his earliest interviews with LSU.

Since then, all Kelly has done is sign a top-10 recruiting class and lead LSU to an 8-2 record and a spot in the SEC Championship for the first time since 2019. [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] has been the athletic director at LSU since 2019 and before that, he was the AD at Texas A&M. He was the athletic director that hired Jimbo Fisher from Florida State.

Paul Finebaum thinks Woodward has hit the home run of all home runs with Brian Kelly.

“Another thing about this is Scott Woodward has been able to make people forget that he hired Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M,” said Finebaum. “But by hiring Brian Kelly – and he also wanted to bring Jimbo to LSU – but nobody’s going to criticize Scott Woodward, who has hit the home run of all home runs by bringing Brian Kelly to the Bayou.”

LSU will host UAB in the last home game of the season this Saturday night at 8 p.m. CT.

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LSU AD Scott Woodward set to receive 4-year extension

LSU’s board of supervisors is set for a vote to approve Woodward’s extension — which would pay him $1.8 million annually — on Friday afternoon.

Tigers athletics director [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] is sticking around for the near future.

Woodward is set to receive a four-year extension that will pay him $1.85 million annually. The university’s board of supervisors is set to hold a vote to approve Woodward’s extension on Friday afternoon.

Woodward’s contract includes academic incentives that could boost his pay by as much as $250,000 annually, per a report from ESPN’s Alex Scarborough. It could also net him $500,000 in bonuses for the 2025 and 2029 fiscal years if he meets certain incentives, and a national championship for one program or an SEC title for three would grant him an additional $500,000 in a “Milestone Performance Payment.”

LSU hired Woodward away from Texas A&M, where he pulled football coach Jimbo Fisher from Florida State, in 2019. Since joining his alma mater, Woodward has gained notoriety for his flashy coach hirings, which have included [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag], [autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag], [autotag]Matt McMahon[/autotag] and [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag].

Woodward is regarded as one of the top ADs in college sports, and it seems like he’ll be calling the shots at LSU, at least in the relative short term.

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LSU, SEC officials reportedly unhappy CBS passed on LSU-Tennessee

The network passed on the Tigers’ Week 6 contest against the Vols twice.

In a surprising scheduling turn of events, LSU’s Oct. 8 matchup against a Tennessee team that will likely rank in the top 10 will not get the 2:30 p.m. CT kickoff on CBS. Instead, the game will be televised on ESPN at 11 a.m., just the 15th ever morning kickoff at Tiger Stadium.

Considering it will be a doubleheader on CBS, with Auburn and Georgia kicking off in the early slot and Alabama and Texas A&M playing in the night slot. It’s unsurprising CBS went with the latter in prime time, but LSU fans were surprised to see the former selected since it is widely expected to be a blowout.

Fans weren’t the only ones who felt this way. According to WAFB’s Jacques Doucet, the move drew the ire of both LSU athletics director [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] and SEC officials.

It seems the league was pushing CBS to pick the inter-divisional matchup, but the network chose to pass on the game not once, but twice. On the bright side, LSU is yet to lose a morning kickoff at home since the turn of the century.

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What was LSU’s biggest move of the 2022 offseason?

It’s been an eventful offseason in Baton Rouge, to say the least. What’s the biggest move the Tigers have made?

It was an eventful offseason in Baton Rouge to say the least.

Midway through a disappointing 2021 season for the Tigers, coach [autotag]Ed Orgeron[/autotag] was informed he wouldn’t be returning in 2022. LSU stumbled down the stretch with a lame-duck coach and finished 6-7 with a loss to Kansas State in the Texas Bowl.

With a new coaching staff in place and a number of major additions in the transfer portal, the Tigers did a lot to get things back on track. Brad Crawford of 247Sports recently broke down every SEC team’s biggest move this offseason, and his selection for LSU was far from surprising: the hiring of coach [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag].

Kelly won 10 or more games seven times at Notre Dame and at least appeared to be one of college football’s untouchable coaches during a wild cycle last fall that kickstarted with Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for USC. The Tigers took their time with their coaching search post-Ed Orgeron and landed one of the nation’s biggest fish, pulling an elite leader from a top 10 program. Kelly finished 113-40 record in South Bend and holds a 166-62 all-time record at the Division I level (145-62 adjusted by NCAA).

Kelly is the FBS’ third-winningest active coach, and though he’s still looking for a national title, LSU would have been hard-pressed to land a more proven coach this offseason. Still, the SEC will provide a new challenge for Kelly, Notre Dame’s all-time wins leader.

The Tigers’ last three head coaches all won national titles, and none were as established in the industry as Kelly when they took the job. That means expectations for the new staff will be sky-high, but there are a lot of reasons to be pleased with the latest big fish athletic director [autotag]Scott Woodward[/autotag] managed to reel in.

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