Billy Glasscock’s rise to LSU’s general manager job has been built on a simple idea: bet on yourself, then keep cashing the checks.
Back in 2008, Glasscock was 32 and serving as offensive coordinator at Arizona Western, a junior college in Yuma. Instead of staying put, the Bloomington, Illinois, native made the leap and left for Northern Illinois, where Jerry Kill was looking for help.
“I got connected with Coach Kill,” Glasscock said in a story in 2016 when he was director of recruiting at the University of Minnesota.
That connection changed everything. Glasscock said, “He didn’t have any paid positions, but he was looking for guys to help,” and added, “I left a full-time job as offensive coordinator at Arizona Western to work for free for him.”
He started out helping with recruiting and working as an assistant strength coach before eventually drawing a salary. Kill’s teams went 7-6 and 5-3 in the Mid-American Conference in 2009, then 10-3 and 8-0 in 2010, and when Kill landed the Minnesota job, Glasscock went with him as director of recruiting.
Minnesota later reached back-to-back 8-5 seasons in 2013 and 2014, and Glasscock stayed through a 9-4 season in 2016 before moving to North Carolina State as director of player personnel. A 2016 story described him this way: “Glasscock has spearheaded a recruiting effort that has sent Minnesota to four straight bowl appearances, while embracing the ever-expanding intricacies of evaluating high school prospects,”
From there, his path kept climbing. He spent 2017-20 at NC State, then took the same job at Texas from 2021-23 before Lane Kiffin made him general manager at Ole Miss in 2024.
Glasscock made $425,000 in 2025, then followed Kiffin to LSU last December on a three-year, $3 million contract. That deal made him one of the highest paid GMs in college football.
At LSU, Glasscock’s job centers on player acquisition, retention and salary cap management, a role that has become crucial since college football moved into Name, Image & Likeness and the no-sit-out transfer portal in the summer of 2021. He helped Kiffin build the No. 1 portal class in 2024, the No. 2 class in ’25 and the No. 1 class at LSU in 2026.
“It’s worked extremely well with Billy and I,” Kiffin said recently. “I know that I can get on a plane to go recruiting, and everything will be handled extremely well in this building.
To put together the rosters the way we did, and now come here and turn this the way we did, at least on paper so far, is awesome. I think he’s as good as they come in the entire country.”
Glasscock, now 50, oversees an LSU personnel department that includes 10 player personnel and recruiting assistants: J.R. Belton, Adam Clark, Thaddeus Rivers, Tyler Veeins, Mike Williams, Jeff Martin, Austin Shelton, Arl St. Cyr, Sam Petitto and Dwike Wilson.
Kiffin said LSU’s operation is built to mirror the NFL.
“If you want the answers of how to do something in college football, usually just look to the NFL,” Kiffin said. “Why not have a GM who can help you run the entire building?”
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