LSU interim AD Ausberry given full authority to hire football coach - ESPN

LSU interim athletic director Verge Ausberry will have full authority to hire the Tigers' next football coach, and he told reporters Friday that a search committee has already been formed to identify Brian Kelly's replacement.

Ausberry, a former LSU linebacker who has been connected to the university for more than 30 years, is now leading the athletics department after former athletics director Scott Woodward and the school mutually agreed to part ways Thursday.

«We're going to hire the best football coach there is,» Ausberry said in a news conference Friday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. «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.»

Woodward's departure came a day after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry told reporters that Woodward wouldn't be involved in hiring Kelly's replacement, saying he'd rather let President Donald Trump do it.

The Tigers fired Kelly on Sunday, a day after they lost to Texas A&M 49-25 at home and dropped to 5-3.

While some have suggested that the political controversy surrounding the LSU athletics department shake-up might scare away some potential candidates, Ausberry was confident the Tigers will find the right coach.

«We're LSU,» Ausberry said. «This place is not broken. The athletic department is not broken. We win.»

Ausberry, the executive deputy athletic director under Woodward, is a member of the search committee, along with LSU board of supervisors chairman Scott Ballard and other board members and donors.

The board of supervisors is scheduled to select the next LSU president on Tuesday, but Ballard told reporters that