After one press conference, one thing is certain and that is Scott Woodward is not your average athletic director. Whether it’s quoting famous American novelist Thomas Wolfe or Civil War soldier Tecumseh Sherman, the newly appointed Woodward is inheriting an athletics department ripe with possibility and conflicts.
Tuesday afternoon was the first time the public got to hear from the man that will be replacing a regime that lasted more than a decade, and Woodward made sure to express his enthusiasm right from the start.
“Thomas Wolf once said that you can't go home again, but clearly they've never been to Baton Rouge,” Woodward said. “I did not return because this is home to me and my entire multigenerational family. I did not come back because of the pull of any one individual. I am at LSU because I believe in who we are and what we can accomplish together, and I stress together.”
Before Tuesday’s noon press conference even began, Woodward had a busy morning of talking to all of his coaches in an informal matter before holding a larger meeting with all the employees of LSU athletics. The message Woodward wanted to stress in both meetings was that he’s “just a guy” and wanted to instill an open dialogue with his employees from day one.
“Yeah, it's hey, welcome, look forward to working with you, and it's just kind of an introductory, hey, I'm Scott Woodward, I'm the dude who sold peanuts in Tiger Stadium,” Woodward said. “I'm just a guy and I'm going to be accessible and I'm going to have collaborative in how we do things.”
One of the immediate issues Woodward will be dealing with is the impending investigation into the basketball program and coach Will Wade. Woodward said he hasn’t had the time to have a sit down meeting with the recently reinstated basketball coach but did stress he has 100% confidence in Wade and the future of the program.
“Yeah, it's like everything, I know probably less than you do on this, and I need to be briefed and need to find out what's going on,” Woodward said. “But Coach Wade is LSU's coach, and until then he's going to have my 100 percent support.”
One of the biggest takeaways from Tuesday’s conference is Woodward plans to have two very open ears over the coming weeks and months about how to make improvements in the athletic department without having to tear the whole thing down.
“People forget, I've been gone 15 years, and a lot of things have changed here, and I'll have to rely upon a lot of folks,” Woodward said. “My friend Brian Cheramie and head of the Tiger Athletic Foundation Rick Perry and those guys, and we're going to have to really talk as a department about what is going on. I don't want to screw up what's good, but there's always room for improvement. I'll do a lot of listening and I'll see how things are going from that standpoint.”
Woodward was a part of the 2003 National Championship football team, back when he was in charge of external relations under Mark Emert and was presented with the “Win” bar from that ‘03 championship.
While the seemingly unanimous praise of the hire of a local kid, that grew up a miles from Tiger Stadium is great on the surface, you won’t hear it from Woodward. The calm truth Woodward spoke with when talking about returning to LSU gives Tiger fans a sense of family and hope that the athletic department has been relatively lacking over the past few years.
“For those of you who don't know me well, I'm not one who seeks the spotlight,” Woodward said. “I want our student-athletes and our coaches to have that shine, and I want to be behind them 100 percent. And while there are challenges here at LSU and there are challenges from time to time, there are so many great things happening and so much already in place for us to have success across the board.”
