The story of Gov. Jeff Landry’s involvement in LSU football, as he tells it, begins with a tiger.
The St. Martinville native was awed by the school’s live mascot growing up, and he believed tens of thousands of LSU fans would also enjoy seeing Mike roll out onto the field in his cage before the game.
That’s why Landry pushed to revive the tradition, dismissing concerns from LSU’s veterinary school and animal rights groups about the feline’s well-being.
“Why is it OK for Colorado to have a bison? Why is it OK for Texas to have a longhorn? Why is it OK for Georgia to have a bulldog?” Landry said recently. “It’s a bunch of loudmouth people that believe that they know what an animal feels.”
Ever since that move in his first year as governor, Landry has become a recurring, prominent character in the story of LSU athletics, especially over the past several months. Too prominent in the eyes of the Southeastern Conference, which accused the Louisiana governor and attorney general of overly involving themselves in the affairs of the Tigers’ football program when Lane Kiffin sought to add athletes who previously signed with NFL teams.
A live tiger is presented on the field before LSU hosts Alabama, Saturday, November 9, 2024, at Tiger Stadium on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
Because the SEC says LSU has lost “institutional control” over its athletic department, the conference has threatened to expel the school from the league via a federal lawsuit.
In a recent 40-minute interview with The Advocate | The Times-Picayune, Landry vigorously defended his role and offered new details about his most high-profile interventions.
Everything from the live tiger, to essentially firing an LSU athletic director during a news conference, to helping recruit and then publicly defending Kiffin — he says he’s done it all to make sure the state’s flagship university succeeds.
“A governor that ignores LSU,” Landry said, “is not a governor that cares about the state of Louisiana.”
Louisiana politics and LSU
Before he became the most powerful man in the state, Landry says he was “in the room” — actually, at a hunting camp — when Nick Saban was hired away from Michigan State by LSU.
Landry was 28 at the time and remembers hearing that ex-LSU coach Bill Arnsparger talked to Saban and told him, “Listen, you do all you want at Michigan State. You can win a national championship at LSU, and it’ll be the funnest place you ever worked in your life. As long as you win.”
It was a conversation Landry, who attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and got his law degree from Loyola, would remember a quarter century later when he became the top politician in Louisiana.
It’s a state where governors have been known to involve themselves in LSU football.
The “kingfish” Huey Long drew up plays and nursed injured LSU athletes back to health. John McKeithen hosted recruits at the governor’s mansion. Bobby Jindal publicly urged LSU not to fire Les Miles in 2015, though the national title-winning coach was canned the following year. John Bel Edwards befriended Ed Orgeron, and Orgeron backed the governor’s reelection bid in 2019.
Landry’s first intersection with the state’s biggest athletics brand stoked controversy.
At least one LSU official, ex-provost Roy Haggerty, testified under oath that Landry ordered then-president William Tate to put a live tiger on the field, despite strenuous objections from the veterinary school that cares for Mike. Haggerty said he left LSU in 2025 because he was uncomfortable with the governor’s “involvement” in athletics.
A tiger sits in his cage on the field before LSU’s game with Alabama on Saturday, November 9, 2024 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Landry said he never met Haggerty and wouldn’t know him if he “walked in and bit me in the back.” The governor acknowledged he had a “back-and-forth” with the then-dean of LSU’s veterinary school, but he ultimately understood why LSU’s current tiger mascot, Mike VII, couldn’t make an appearance at the game.
Instead, Landry backed a plan to rent a different tiger from Florida named Omar Bradley that appeared at the LSU-Alabama game in 2024.
“I watched … the interest of the people who pulled their iPhones out to see that tiger,” Landry said. “If you were offended by it, you would not want to record it.”
Some alumni found the incident embarrassing. But the true embarrassment, in Landry’s eyes, came a year later after a home loss to Texas A&M.
“Next thing I know, I get a call in the morning that they fired the coach. And I said, ‘Well, send me the contract.’ And I look at the contract, and the contract placed the state of Louisiana on the hook. OK? And then I start digging and I start looking around and say, ‘OK, let’s look at this athletic director,’” Landry recalled.
Scott Woodward was to blame, Landry concluded — not just for the $54 million buyout Brian Kelly was owed, but for athletics costs spiraling out of control due to NIL payments to players, and for a men’s basketball team that had gone down the drain.
Landry said he wanted LSU to fire Woodward, but the school worked out a deal with him instead.
“I told them they should fire him. They should have fired him. They should have not let him leave with $6 million,” Landry said. “I wanted him fired because of the trail of financial destruction that he left.”
That frustration led to a news conference that went viral.
“I had lost my mind because I was watching a virtual trainwreck in slow motion,” Landry said. “I do not like to lose. I do not like failure. And I said we’re just not gonna do that again.”
Rumors swirled that Landry’s antipathy for Woodward, who was hired during the administration of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and has ties to famed Democratic strategist James Carville, stemmed from partisan politics.
Landry said he was unaware of Woodward’s political leanings.
“You think honestly that if we were winning and that the program was doing great, I’d say we’re getting rid of this person because he’s a Democrat?” Landry said, incredulous. “I don’t care who they are. Just go win. That’s what I want.”
Woodward did not respond to a request for comment.
Lane Kiffin hire
In the aftermath, LSU needed a football coach who could win a national title. Landry said he didn’t tell the university how to accomplish that — only that he had two requirements for the coach’s contract.
“I said, ‘Hey guys, y’all go get us a coach, whoever y’all think,” Landry recalled. “All I said was, ‘I want it front-loaded, and I don’t want the state of Louisiana on the hook.’”
The search committee initially had three people in mind, Landry said, but they told him, “We really would like Lane.”
“There was a point in time in which Lane wanted to have a discussion,” he said. “We had like a five-minute phone call.”
During that call, the governor relayed what Arnsparger told Saban about LSU being a fun job. As long as you win.
“I told Lane the same thing,” Landry recalled. “I said, ‘I think it’d be great. Everybody wants you here, we’d love to have you.’”
LSU head coach Lane Kiffin walks up the sideline during a break in the game against McNeese on Saturday, October 3, 2026 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
LSU inked Kiffin to a seven-year deal worth $94 million, paying out $13 million annually plus bonuses for winning games in the postseason. If he’s fired, he’s owed 80% of the remainder of his deal. Kelly’s deal at LSU was for 10 years, $100 million.
Landry contends the two contracts are fundamentally different because, if Kiffin is fired, the Tiger Athletic Foundation, not LSU, has to pay his buyout. Donors promised to pay for Kelly’s buyout, but Landry says that wasn’t guaranteed since it wasn’t in the contract.
“They think there’s always some billionaire on the other side willing to stroke a check,” Landry said. “I said, well, ‘OK, do we have one?’ We still don’t have one.”
When asked if he gave his “blessing” to move forward with Kiffin’s deal, Landry said, “I did.”
“Any governor should, because the governor should really be looking at this contract, especially if it puts the taxpayer at risk,” Landry said. “I have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens, right? LSU is a public university. I think people forget that.”
LSU head coach Lane Kiffin walks down victory hill before the game against Mississippi State on Saturday, October 17, 2026 Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
A national name
Ever since, Landry has courted national attention for his role in LSU athletics.
He hopped on ESPN personality Pat McAfee’s show right after his viral comments about Woodward and was bluntly asked if he “runs” LSU and was the “boss” because of the power he seemed to wield. Landry then explained to McAfee that the university’s governing board is made up of members whom he appoints.
Kiffin spoke at his introductory press conference about the “unique, great” call he had with Landry. They stayed in touch because Jordan Seaton, a left tackle who transferred from Colorado, swung by the governor’s mansion on his recruiting visit to Baton Rouge.
In August, the governor hosted LSU’s top 40 boosters at his mansion as they heard from LSU president Wade Rousse about a financial plan for the university’s sports teams.
In a recent federal lawsuit, the SEC said there was “great concern” amongst the 15 other SEC member schools that Kiffin coordinated with the athletes’ attorneys in their eligibility cases with the “support and involvement” of Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill.
They refute those claims. Murrill said the SEC “is just making it up.” Landry said it’s “great for clicks,” but there were no strategy sessions between Kiffin and the governor.
A float featuring Governor Jeff Landry and LSU head football coach Lane Kiffin on the side of a float during the Knights of Chaos parade in New Orleans on Thursday, February 12, 2026. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Landry insists whatever involvement he has in athletics is meant to ensure LSU and all of Louisiana’s higher education systems are on a trajectory toward success. He said he doesn’t go to team practices, and he’s rarely on the field during games.
“If Lane wants to text me, he’s welcome to. I don’t go over there. I don’t say, ‘Hey, maybe you should sit Sam Leavitt today.’ I don’t do any of that,” Landry said. “This is about the bigger picture of making LSU such a powerful brand that it becomes a high tide that lifts all boats here in Louisiana.”
Kiffin has expressed a similar sentiment.
“He doesn’t tell us what to do. He’s not in charge of us,” Kiffin said. “He’s just excited. He just wants LSU football to win, because when LSU football wins and wins with style, man, the state feels good on Sunday mornings.”
LSU president Wade Rousse and athletic director Verge Ausberry pose with new head football coach Lane Kiffin and his family, Layla, Landry and Knox, after a introductory press conference on Monday, December 1, 2025 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
There have been mostly good vibes in Kiffin’s first season, sitting at 6-2 with a pair of road losses by a combined nine points. The SEC has just been displeased with Kiffin, and vice versa, since he tried to add a pair of former Ole Miss starters, Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, who spent time with the Browns and Saints, respectively.
A standoff over those players led the conference to sue LSU in federal court and accuse Louisiana officials of interfering.
Lawsuits and SEC controversy
The SEC noted in its lawsuit that Murrill sat at the plaintiffs’ table when Wright, Harris and dozens of other athletes were granted a fifth season of NCAA eligibility in a Baton Rouge courtroom. It also noted that she said “Geaux Tigers” on her way into the hearing.
But that doesn’t lay a legal foundation, Murrill said, to claim she’s worked “hand in glove” with the plaintiffs in the case or that she coordinated with the governor to help Kiffin.
“It’s fiction,” Murrill said. “They have no evidence because it doesn’t exist.”
Landry, too, forcefully denied the accusation that he helped the players or Kiffin with the eligibility case.
“Oh my God, no. Like, you think they’d call me, and I said, ‘Let me tell you how we’re going to do this,’” he said. “I get it. It’s great for clicks.”
Murrill says the state of Louisiana has a right to be involved in eligibility cases because universities are arms of the state that enter into contracts with athletes — and universities risk “enormous financial consequences” for running afoul of SEC and NCAA rules.
“We have an obligation to deal with them fairly,” Murrill said of college athletes, “and to make sure that the rules are fair and predictable.”
The SEC has also accused LSU of failing to have institutional control over its sports programs. But the conference’s legal filings haven’t provided clear evidence aside from Kiffin and basketball coach Will Wade’s previous statements about rostering ex-pros, along with Murrill and Landry’s social media posts defending them.
Rousse, a defendant in the suit, said LSU has “full institutional control” over its athletics program, but he declined to answer additional questions, citing the SEC’s ongoing lawsuit against LSU officials.
LSU head coach Lane Kiffin is greeted by President Dr. Wade Rousse following win over Clemson on Sunday, September 6, 2026 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
The SEC declined to comment for this story. Emails were sent to the presidents’ offices for all 15 SEC schools or their spokespersons — and none responded to comment.
“You think that those universities are aggravated and antagonized because of me? No, no, no. They’re afraid of Lane Kiffin. They’re afraid of Will Wade,” Landry said. “They’re afraid of LSU’s dominance. That’s what this is; this is about money. And we’re gonna win.”
Sports and politics
While controversy simmers between Louisiana, the SEC and other member schools, there are Louisianans willing to question Landry’s motivations.
“Whether it’s the state Legislature or it’s LSU, he likes to be in charge, and he likes to call the shots,” said Rolfe McCollister, an LSU alumnus who served on the Board of Supervisors under Republican Govs. Buddy Roemer and Bobby Jindal and who has been an outspoken critic of Landry.
“The negative national attention that his involvement has garnered is evidence that the governor has overstepped his bounds, and I believe that the decisions should be those of the LSU Board of Supervisors,” McCollister said. “The governor certainly may have had opinions they express, but none of them were ever on Fox News talking about what LSU was going to do.”
Others argue Landry’s involvement is entirely warranted.
“LSU is absolutely important to the state of Louisiana in every facet. The better LSU does, the better Louisiana does,” said Rémy Starns, a current member of the Board of Supervisors. “Any governor should be involved in supporting and promoting LSU. Period. Full stop.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the LSU game against Florida on Friday, March 22, 2024 at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Bob Mann, a former political staffer for Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco and LSU professor who has written a book about Huey Long’s dealings with LSU, has been critical of Landry in the past. He said the current governor could have delegated responsibility for athletics rather than intervening as he has.
At the same time, Mann acknowledged Louisiana centralizes power in its executive branch.
“There’s just an expectation that Baton Rouge is expected to have all the answers. The governor is expected to be involved in everything,” Mann said.
Landry is, by no means, singular in his interest in LSU.
“LSU football is our official state religion,” Mann said, “and smart politicians wanna be in good with the church.”
