{"id":643374,"date":"2026-05-14T21:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/643374\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T21:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:04:15","slug":"lsu-ad-verge-ausberry-claims-football-program-under-brian-kelly-had-no-connection-to-tigers-fans-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/643374\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU AD Verge Ausberry claims football program under Brian Kelly had ‘no connection’ to Tigers fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The offseason has provided no shortage of entertainment, and at this point, it seems like no coach or administrator in the SEC wants to be left out. This time, it\u2019s former LSU<\/a> coach Brian Kelly<\/a> in the crosshairs of current Tigers athletics director Verge Ausberry.<\/p>\n

Ausberry conducted an exclusive interview with USA TODAY Sports<\/a> on the state of his program. In it, he lambasted Kelly for making very few attempts to connect with the base at LSU.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t name Brian Kelly, but clearly referenced the previous coach. He did so as a way of talking up new coach Lane Kiffin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to go do some things with alumni and do things with boosters and do things with fundraising, with NIL. You have to be a part of that,\u201d Ausberry said. \u201cThat\u2019s what Lane will do. \u2026 He\u2019ll go out there and have that conversation with the donors and the people who support the program and (say), \u2018We need your help,\u2019 and give them his cell number.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not one who\u2019ll say, \u2018OK, I don\u2019t want people to contact me. I don\u2019t want people to touch me. I don\u2019t want people to be around me.\u2019 That\u2019s who we had. That\u2019s why we got what we got. There was no feel, there was no connection between the LSU football program, the coach, and the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly was fired despite putting together a fairly respectable overall record. He went 34-14 at LSU, winning 10 games in each of his first two seasons. But it also wasn\u2019t clear he could get over the hump. LSU won nine games in Kelly\u2019s third year and was 5-3 when he was fired midway through his fourth.<\/p>\n

Much has been made of Kelly\u2019s fit with the program, which, to some, seemed off from Day 1. Kelly was scrutinized heavily after attempting to imitate a southern accent early on at LSU. While it was mostly rivals that latched on, it became a sort of signature jab at the long-time head coach.<\/p>\n

Now Kiffin steps in. The former Ole Miss<\/a> coach has drawn no shortage of headlines himself, including throwing shade at his former program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So far, though, Kiffin seems to be connecting with the base in ways that Brian Kelly did not. The Tigers are red hot on the recruiting trail, boasting the nation\u2019s No. 10 class<\/a> with only five recruits \u2014 two of whom are five-star prospects.<\/p>\n

Results in the offseason only matter so much. But for now, it\u2019s clear that at least Ausberry, the current LSU athletics director, feels much better about the direction the program is headed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason has provided no shortage of entertainment, and at this point, it seems like no coach or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-643374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}