kaleah johnson
It’s no secret that sports in Louisiana are one of the most influential things that we have. It is one of those things that is really cherished and coveted down here in the Boot. With that being said,what has been happening recently with all of the sports teams in Louisiana has just been truly absurd. It starts with the Southern University Jaguars football team, who managed to post an awful 1-6 record before Head Coach Terrance Graves was shown the door. Keep in mind, this is the same Southern University Jaguar football team that won the SWAC West title in 2024, as well as made it to the SWAC Championship game in a losing effort to Jackson State. To go from that just a year ago to now sporting the worst record in the conference is something that was truly unforeseen and is what ultimate ly to the firing of Coach Graves.
Then if you turn your head just 11 miles down the road, you will see that LSU fired their Head Football Coach Brian Kelly. His firing was more of a surprise to everyone, considering that his overall record at LSU was 34-14. This may not look bad to the naked eye, but once you do some digging and look at the intricacies of it, you can see why LSU decided to let go of the former Notre Dame Football Head Coach. He was 19-10 in SEC games and was 2-3 in SEC games in 2025 alone. He had lost 3 out of his last 4 games at LSU, which is what led to his dismissal. This came just a mere six days after Southern released Terrance Graves, and this brings on the ultimate question; What is happening in Louisiana Collegiate Sports right now? And more specifically in Baton Rouge sports.
The issue that continues to exist for these schools is not a lack of talent, rather it is a lack of adaptability and accountability by the heads of both schools. You look at Terrance Graves tenure at Southern. Which had some great moments at times, and you could see have he was trying to shape up his team to be, it just was never the right fit for the Jaguars. They would not be able to get over the proverbial hump with him at the helm. The same thing goes for Brian Kelly over at LSU. His style of coaching and control or lack thereof is what led to him getting the boot as well. Both of these coaches are similar in the sense that they are both hands-free coaches that do not call offense or defense and let their coordinators and staff do most of the work. This is jsut something that cannot be sustainable at these institutions that are looking to win championships.