Some believe our governor, Jeff Landry, has no love for Louisiana’s flagship university, favoring UL Lafayette, his hometown university and alma mater. That, writes Rolfe McCollister in his latest column, might explain his incessant negative actions and comments that draw national attention and upset students, faculty and alumni, not to mention embarrassing our state.
Need a refresher? McCollister encourages readers to remember his tirade on X about coach Kim Mulkey not having her women’s basketball team on the floor for the national anthem (Landry threatened to revoke athletes’ scholarships).
“More recently, after receiving cheers at a recent Turning Point Rally downtown, he went to the LSU campus to record a late-night video challenging the LSU Board of Supervisors to make it the first university to erect a statue of Charlie Kirk,” McCollister writes. “Will his LSU board dare to defy him? I predict more words he will have to eat.”
So, if this isn’t enough, McCollister notes, the community has his “most recent escapades with our former football coach and athletic director. You know what happened. Everyone in America is aware of Landry’s clown show.”
As McCollister describes, those who love purple and bleed gold are angry and confused. “Everyone else is just laughing at Louisiana and LSU,” he writes. “They can’t believe our governor’s actions and comments. It was featured on every sports talk show and in numerous national newspapers and columns, with words like ‘circus’ and ‘buffoon.’ This harms the LSU brand.”
Despite the governor’s demands to limit the compensation for the next coach, McCollister predicted, “If LSU wants a top coach, the market will determine the contract terms, not the governor, and the ‘mouth of the south’ will have to eat his words.” The terms of LSU’s contract with Lane Kiffin, disclosed earlier this week, provide for $13 million a year, compared to $9 million for Brian Kelly.
McCollister notes that “as this chaos was unfolding in the athletic department, the governor was also pulling the strings in selecting the next LSU president. It was over before it even started. His pick, Wade Rousse, president of McNeese State University, would be named president. While some say Rousse is a great guy, Landry and the “faux process” by his board minions (except for Laurie Aronson) have cast a shadow over Rousse’s qualifications to lead the flagship system.”
Over the past month, McCollister confides, he has heard from friends, LSU faculty, alumni and donors—both in-state and out—who are upset by the governor’s actions and “how they’ve harmed LSU. As people laugh again about Louisiana politics, it brings back memories of the old days.”
As an LSU alum and native Louisianan, McCollister writes, he is angered that “Landry is damaging our flagship’s reputation. What you see is the ‘real Jeff Landry’ I wrote about in 2023—but he has worsened, and the stories grow. There are many more we don’t know about. It’s clear to me that with Landry in the mansion, these stories will keep coming, along with the shame. That’s not good for LSU or Louisiana.”
In his latest column, McCollister also discusses the newly designed BREC Commission and plans for a national search beginning in January for a new superintendent. And he reflects on Baton Rouge and shares an article in Quartz titled, “The cities of the future will be built on code, not concrete.”
