LSU athletic director Scott Woodward resigned under pressure from the post he had held for six years Thursday night, four days after Brian Kelly was fired in his fourth year as head coach of the school’s football program and a day after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Woodward would not hire Kelly’s replacement.
Woodward, a Baton Rouge native and LSU graduate, was hired as athletic director at his alma mater in April 2019. Since then, the Tigers have won national championships in football, baseball (twice), women’s basketball and gymnastics.
“We thank Scott for the last six years of service as athletic director,” Scott Ballard, the chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors, said in a news release announcing the change. “He had a lot of success at LSU. Our focus now is on moving the athletic department forward and best positioning LSU to achieve its full potential.”
Among the coaches hired by Woodward was Kim Mulkey, who led the LSU women’s basketball program to its first national championship in 2023. Her team played an exhibition game Thursday night, and Mulkey declined to attend a postgame news conference, sending assistant Bob Starkey instead.
“She’s heartbroken,” Starkey told reporters.