BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU football suffered from “no connection” under Brian Kelly, and now the program is pivoting back toward “the Saban model.”
That’s how LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry described it in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY Sports, during which Ausberry spoke at length about the program’s direction under first-year coach Lane Kiffin.
While not mentioning Kiffin’s predecessor directly by name, Ausberry took a clear shot at how the program operated under Kelly.
“It’s going back to the Saban model,” Ausberry told USA TODAY Sports of the program’s redirect. “(That means) running the whole program. Then, you have to go do some things with alumni and do things with boosters and do things with fundraising, with NIL. You have to be a part of that.”
“That’s what Lane will do,” Ausberry continued. “He’ll go out there and have that conversation with the donors and the people who support the program and (say), ‘We need your help,’ and give them his cell number.
“He’s not one who’ll say, ‘OK, I don’t want people to contact me. I don’t want people to touch me. I don’t want people to be around me.’ That’s who we had. That’s why we got what we got. There was no feel, there was no connection between the LSU football program, the coach, and the fans.”
Brian Kelly’s LSU program had ‘no connection’
Particularly notable, according to Ausberry, is how Kiffin makes former players feel welcome around the program.
“There was no connection and no building” when Kelly was coach, Ausberry said. “Not many employees connected. The former players didn’t connect. Yeah, I’m saying it.
“Now, former players live over there (at the facility), go over there, we welcome them over there, (they) work out over there. That’s what we want. That’s who LSU used to be. Former players came in the weight room, and they worked out. There wasn’t signing no form to be able to work out, or, ‘Who are you? You can’t work out at this time.’”
Brian Kelly loss to Texas A&M showed undeniable ‘problem’
Ausberry is a Louisiana lifer who’s spent his entire career at LSU. He’s friends with Saban, the former LSU coach. Kiffin started to rebuild his career under Saban as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, more than a decade ago.
Kiffin said after his hire Saban told him he’d regret it if he passed on the LSU job.
Ausberry played linebacker for LSU before starting his career in the athletic department. He became athletic director in November after Gov. Jeff Landry cleaned house, with an assist from the LSU’s board of supervisors.
One of Ausberry’s first moves after being promoted was hiring Kiffin away from Mississippi. Kiffin steps into a job that demands perennial playoff contention.
Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron each won a national championship at LSU within four seasons.
Kelly won 71% of his games at LSU, but he never made the playoff. In Kelly’s final two games, LSU lost to Vanderbilt, then got trounced by Texas A&M at home after blowing a halftime lead.
By the fourth quarter of Kelly’s final game at Tiger Stadium, the stands had hollowed out, and Aggie maroon was notable among the fans who remained.
That scene lingers with Ausberry.
“When you get beat 50-something to 7, or whatever the Texas A&M score was, and you’re feeling all your fans leaving, that’s a problem,” Ausberry said.
The final score was 49-25, but who’s counting?
Verge Ausberry: If you’re talking about LSU football, ‘that’s good.’
Kelly recently told USA TODAY Sports he’s interested in coaching again, if it’s the right situation, and he predicted Kiffin will succeed at LSU.
Asked directly whether Kiffin would win a national championship at LSU, Kelly said, “I think so.”
How Kiffin fares in Year 1 at LSU will rank among the top stories in college football this season.
Previously Public Enemy No. 1 in Tennessee for leaving the Vols after one season in favor of his “dream job” Southern California, Kiffin is now reviled in Mississippi, and Kiffin told USA TODAY Sports that Ole Miss fans hate him on a “way different level” than Tennessee did.
Well, get your popcorn ready.
ESPN’s “College GameDay” will air from Baton Rouge before LSU’s season opener against Clemson. In what should be the premier spectacle of the regular season, Kiffin will return to Oxford, Mississippi, in Week 3, when LSU plays Ole Miss.
Kiffin led Ole Miss to its best period of success since the peak of the Johnny Vaught era, more than 60 years ago, but just as the Rebels qualified for the playoff for the first time ever, Kiffin left for the LSU job.
A villainous exit in Oxford. A hero’s welcome in Baton Rouge.
Employing Kiffin isn’t for the faint of heart. Wherever he goes, the headlines (and drama) follow.
“Every day you talk about us, guess what, that’s good for LSU,” Ausberry said. “If they’re not talking about you, guess what? That’s when you’ve got problems. That’s when you got apathy. That’s when nobody gives a s***, when nobody cares when you’re getting your ass beat by A&M by 40, when nobody’s watching you.
“I’d rather be on the opposite side.”
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LSU AD explains how Lane Kiffin is doing what Brian Kelly didn’t