ESPN’s Ryan Clark Slams Jeff Landry Over LSU Coaching Threat — And ‘Ridiculous’ Charlie Kirk Statue Proposal

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ESPN analyst Ryan Clark on Thursday took shots at Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) for his intervention into LSU football and his proposal for a Charlie Kirk statue on campus.

The day before, Landry announced in a press conference that LSU athletic director Scott Woodward would not be selecting the football team’s next head coach. That announcement came after Woodward made the decision to fire coach Brian Kelly. Landry added that the decision would instead be made by a committee. The governor explained that his sudden interest in the operations of the football team was motivated by the concerns of taxpayers.

That wasn’t the only story involving Landry and LSU this week. On Monday, the governor posted a video on social media calling on the university to erect a statue honoring deceased conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Kirk’s assassination in Utah in September sent shockwaves throughout the political landscape.

On Thursday’s episode of First Take, Clark called out the governor over the coaching situation. While doing so, he threw in a jab about the statue proposal.

“First off, it’s the second-most ridiculous thing he said this week,” Clark said of Landry’s comments on the football team. “The first was standing on campus and saying he wanted to put a statue up with somebody that doesn’t represent the people of Louisiana, doesn’t represent the players and the students at LSU, doesn’t represent the executives that worked there. That was the first dumb thing he said this week. This is the second-dumbest amongst a lot of dumb things that he says.”

Clark went on to vouch for Woodward, listing off the recent non-football success the athletic department has enjoyed.