LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry spent Thursday’s appearance on WAFB-TV’s “Jacques Talk” focused on the kind of things that usually matter most in late August: Lane Kiffin, the opener, a packed Tiger Stadium and a football season that’s about to kick off in a big way.
What he didn’t touch was the hotter topic hanging over LSU right now - the public back-and-forth involving Kiffin, the Southeastern Conference and commissioner Greg Sankey over the addition of former NFL players to college rosters. That dispute has only grown louder as LSU has worked to add former Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright and former Saints defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, with a possible third player on the way. A third former NFL player, 2025 LSU edge rusher Jack Pyburn, is also expected to commit if he is released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tuesday’s next NFL cutting day.
Ausberry kept clear of that legal fight on the air, which makes sense given that it’s still an active battle. Instead, he leaned into the football ahead.
“We’re ready for the game,” Ausberry said. “It’s time for football season. I’ve been trying to find something on TV for the last three or four weeks.”
No. 11 LSU opens against No.
23 Clemson a week from Saturday in 102,321-seat Tiger Stadium at 6:30 p.m. on ABC. The game is sold out, and so are LSU’s home dates with Alabama on Nov. 7 and Texas on Nov.
Saturday’s College GameDay visit will only add to the buzz.
“This is the first time in history we’re on GameDay for the first game,” Ausberry beamed. “And also the SEC Network.
The whole football world will be watching LSU in nine days. It’s just so great.
You hire a guy like Lane Kiffin - that’s the expectation, the expectation of this team.”
Ausberry was the one who brought in Kiffin after replacing Scott Woodward as athletic director, following Woodward’s firing of Brian Kelly last October. And he made clear he likes the way the new coach has filled out the program.
“Lane has put together a great staff and a great roster,” Ausberry said.
Doucet also brought up Kiffin’s appearance in Dr. Pepper’s latest “Fansville” commercial, which plays off the idea that he’s “Not really known for following the rules.” Ausberry didn’t hesitate on that one.
“That’s what we want,” Ausberry said about the commercial. “That’s the LSU brand.
That’s what Kim Mulkey (LSU national champion women’s basketball coach), Jay Johnson (twice-LSU national champion baseball coach) and Will Wade (new basketball coach for a second time after being fired the first time for NCAA recruiting violations). That’s the brand.
It sells LSU.”
The show also included Southern athletic director Roman Banks, and the conversation drifted to the overlap between LSU and Southern. Banks’ new football coach, Marshall Faulk, was introduced on the same day Kiffin was at LSU on Dec. 1, and after Faulk’s press conference, he stopped by LSU to say hello.
“What are you doing here?” Ausberry said Kiffin asked Faulk.
“He had no idea that Marshall was just named Southern’s coach,” Ausberry said. “We had the press conferences on the same day.”
Ausberry then told a story from his early days at LSU, when Faulk was being recruited out of Carver High for the 1991 class. At the time, Curley Hallman was the coach, and LSU was trying to sell Faulk on a move to defensive back.
“I was at LSU when he came on his recruiting visit,” said Ausberry, who was then a rookie in the athletic department. “We told him at LSU to play defensive back instead of running back.”
Faulk chose San Diego State and became a running back anyway, piling up 1,429 yards as a freshman.
“So, that gets coaches fired,” Ausberry said.
Hallman never had a winning season at LSU from 1991-94 before he was let go.
Ausberry and Banks also looked ahead to the second-ever LSU-Southern football game, set for Sept. 9, 2028, in Tiger Stadium. LSU beat Southern 65-17 in the first meeting on Sept. 10, 2022.
“Verge, thanks a lot for that check. It means a lot, old friend,” Banks said with a smile, referring to the $700,000 LSU paid Southern for the game.
“Keep it in the state,” laughed Ausberry, who handled football scheduling as deputy athletic director at the time.
The conversation also turned to Skip Bertman, the former LSU athletic director and five-time national champion baseball coach, who died on Aug. 14. A Celebration of Life was held at the Assembly Center on Tuesday, and Ausberry delivered one of the eulogies.
“He taught me how to deal with coaches and players,” Ausberry said of Bertman, whom he worked under from 2001-09. “Great mentor. Skip was one of the best at how you pull a team together in the athletic department to one goal.”
Ausberry said Bertman’s influence still shapes LSU.
“He took what he did as a coach and transcended that into us in the athletic administration,” Ausberry said. “He put the structures in place that we have now.
He started the Tradition Fund (extremely lucrative football season ticket licensing program in 2003). He built facilities - the Football Operations Center, the basketball practice facility, the new baseball stadium and softball stadium, the Academic Center.
That was Skip. He did a lot that most athletic directors wouldn’t do or couldn’t do.”
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For LSU, the timing could hardly be better. The SECs recent decision to allow players on NFL rosters to return to college football opened the door for Pyburn and other former NFL players to rejoin the Tigers, giving the defense a chance to pick up a significant boost right as the opener approaches. The only question now is how quickly everything falls into place. [Read more 🡒]