LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry was on hand Saturday night in Houston to watch the Tigers tangle with Houston in the Texas Bowl, and he was weighing in on a lot of subjects during a pregame interview with local Louisiana TV.
One of the things that Ausberry spoke about with WAFB-TV was the guy who won’t still be coaching LSU when Saturday night’s bowl festivities are over. Lane Kiffin is about to take over in Baton Rouge in 2026, with everything that comes with that, and gone will be Frank Wilson, who’s been the Tigers’ interim head coach this fall since Brian Kelly was fired.
Wilson was coaching LSU one last time in primetime, as the 7-5 Tigers tried to end a chaotic season with a victory. Ausberry only had kind words for Wilson as he got ready for one last game with the program before, in a twist of irony, heading to the place that Kiffin left behind a month ago — Oxford. Wilson will join Pete Golding‘s first Ole Miss staff as running backs coach in 2026.
But before Wilson joins the Rebels, he’s going to do his best to leave a winning impression on Ausberry and lead LSU to victory in the Texas Bowl. Ausberry appreciates everything that Wilson has done this season in bridging the time between Kelly’s departure and Kiffin’s arrival.
“Frank Wilson is going to do well wherever he’s at. He’s still part of our family,” Ausberry said.
But a few hours after those words were spoken by Ausberry, Wilson will be gone from LSU and off to an SEC rival.
Such has been the crazy, chaotic nature of this fall, with Wilson trying to win one more game on Saturday night before joining the program that Kiffin left to hook up with Ausberry at LSU.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
