BATON ROUGE – Wade Rousse is a Louisiana native who’s already proving he knows the Texas two-step, aka the double shuffle.
Last Thursday night, longtime LSU athletic administrator Verge Ausberry was named interim athletics director, replacing Scott Woodward, who was fired after he fired head football coach Brian Kelly on Sunday.
Then, on Tuesday, about five hours after Rousse was named LSU’s new president, he removed the interim tag and named Ausberry as Woodward’s permanent replacement.
News of Ausberry’s promotion spread quickly through the LSU community.
”I heard Verge is now the A.D,” LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey said after her team’s season-opening win over Houston Christian on Tuesday night. “I’m happy because I think Verge is like a lot of us. He grew up in this state. This is his school.”
So, where’s the official announcement from LSU?
Well, Rousse hit the dance floor on Wednesday, double shuffling Ausberry with a “not so fast, my friend” statement made to reporter Piper Hutchinson of the Louisiana Illuminator.
He told Hutchinson that he had removed the interim tag but would assess later whether to hire Ausberry permanently.
“I can’t make a very good decision (about that) after being on the job for eight hours,” Rousse said. “I don’t know what permanent means versus removing interim.”
Then in a Wednesday radio interview on WWL in New Orleans with Mike Detillier and Bobby Hebert, Rousse muddied the waters more.
“I removed the interim tag, he’s the acting AD,” Rousse said of Ausberry. “He has my full authority to go find us a coach for the best job.”
So, the guy who has been tabbed as the person who will hire LSU’s next head football coach is just “acting” in his position?
If you’re an agent of a prospective head coach candidate, how can you have any trust in dealing with LSU?
At this rate, the field of finalists for the job will be from the Ted Lasso tree of soccer coaches.
LSU has the governor of the state who sticks his skinny neck in campus business, a Board of Supervisors (mostly appointed by the governor), who chose the governor’s favorite as the president, and a president who’s one foot in and one foot out on permanently hiring the interim athletic director.
Making this even more confusing, Rousse also told Hutchinson that “when you’re trying to hire a coach, instability is not healthy.”
Rousse should look in a mirror next time he says that. Maybe after he repeats it 100 times, he might figure he’s making a strong bid to be part of the problem.
In the meantime, stop this nonsensical, political merry-go-round.
Also, please grab me a barf bag. You get dizzy trying to handle all the never-ending dumbness daily.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com