[Deegeezy]

Thursday, January 14, 2027...

The LSU Tigers have turned to former Tulane head coach and arch-nemisis D. Geezy to help lead them out of the abyss of mediocrity.




A familiar name will leave the Big Easy to settle in Baton Rouge as LSU lands mega-free agent head coach D. Geezy with a lucrative 3-year, $43.5 million contract | Geezy, who led rival Tulane to 10 straight wins over the Tigers, looks to help put LSU back at the top of Louisiana's college football landscape | University hopes that 17-year veteran head coach can lead Tigers to first SEC, national championships since 2007

Report by Eve Jewell, ESPN.com


Baton Rouge, LA -- "If you can't beat 'em, take 'em," said LSU athletic director Joe Alleva at Thursday's press conference. Less than a week after it was announced that free agent head coach D. Geezy would not be returning to Tulane for an 18th season, the two-time national champion head coach has found a new home in somewhat familiar surroundings, agreeing to terms on a three-year contract with Green Wave in-state rival LSU. The deal will reportedly pay Geezy $14.5 million per season, making him the second highest paid head coach in college football behind only legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban.

It has been 20 years since LSU last won a national championship or even a conference title. The Tigers' will now turn to former rival head coach D. Geezy to help them return to championship glory and also help restore them as Louisiana's premiere college football program.

"Not going to lie, this feels very weird, after viewing LSU as a rival all these years and now jumping the fence to their side," said Geezy at his introductory press conference Thursday afternoon, as he stood surrounded by local and national media as well as fans allowed into the media room.

According to multiple sources, Geezy had several different options to choose from, including offers from North Carolina St., Texas Tech, East Carolina, as well as a reported NFL offer, but in the end, decided that home is where the heart is.

"Baton Rouge is literally about a 70 to 80 minute drive from the Superdome, and being in my home state is very important to both myself and my family," said Geezy, who sources indicate only wanted a 3-year deal after getting locked-in to a 10-year, $50 million contract in 2016 which quickly became an under-market deal just a few years into the agreement.

The six-time SEC champion head coach inherits a Tigers team that has been under a spell of mediocrity for quite some time. Aside from failing to win either a conference title or national title in the past 20 seasons, the team has finished unranked six of the last eight seasons, including each of the last four. The Tigers went 8-5 in 2026, however four of their wins came against non-conference opponents Louisiana Tech, Troy, North Texas, and UL-Lafayette, as the team finished just 3-5 in SEC play. Furthermore, LSU has lost to SEC West powers Alabama and Tulane a whopping 10 consecutive years each. From Les Miles, to Ed Orgeron, to Dave Aranda, and back to Les Miles again, the Tigers have failed to recapture the magic the storied program once had two decades ago, however Geezy believes that the foundation could be in place for the program to have a quick turnaround.

Known as "White Mike" to his teammates due to his similar attributes to former college and NFL star QB Michael Vick, lefty QB Rob Mason is a player Geezy is familiar with, as the head coach recruited him very hard at Tulane and studied him closely as an opponent each of the past two seasons.

"QB Rob Mason is certainly a player that sticks out to me as someone I am excited to work with," said Geezy of the to-be junior quarterback that Tulane once recruited. "We spent a lot of time on him as a staff during the evaluation process a few years back and he is also a player that I personally spent a ton of time on both recruiting him and studying him as an opponent. He's done well up to this point, but there is still a ton of room for growth there, both as a passer and as a runner.

"We have to get his TD to INT ratio to the next level after last year's 29 touchdown, 13 interception effort. We saw a lot of growth there last year with (Tulane quarterback) Jimmy McBride and we'd like to see a similar leap in the fall for Rob with him heading into year 3 as a starter.

"We will also get very creative in how we get him into space in order to take advantage of his athleticism."

But still though, despite inheriting a quarterback with 4.48 speed, Geezy knows that the dominating in the trenches is what matters most.

"One of the areas I thought we did a good job at during our title runs at Tulane was addressing both lines and keeping those two areas stacked with talent," said Geezy, who will celebrate his 47th birthday on January 21st, one week from today. "I thought we failed to deliver there in the latter years and that made things difficult for us to compete with the Alabamas of the world, and more importantly, it made it difficult for us to win conference and national titles.

"Speaking with Joe (Allevia) I think that became a point of emphasis here recently and the previous regime has done a good job with getting a handful of very good young 4-star offensive linemen set to join the roster as freshmen, and the defensive line is also looking very solid on film with some good veterans returning. You're going to see this as a major point of emphasis moving forward."

In the two schools' annual "Battle for the Rag" rivalry game, Tulane has knocked off LSU 10 consecutive times dating back to 2017 season; Coach Geezy will now hope to help turn the tide on the Green Wave dominance that he was responsible for creating.

During Geezy's time at Tulane, the school's football program experienced a level of unprecedented success. After winning two Conference USA titles under Geezy, the team's move back to the SEC in 2014 following a 48-year hiatus sparked the Green Wave's upward ascension into the ranks of college football's elite. The team won its first SEC title in 2015 and would go on to win six total Southeastern conference titles over the course of seven seasons from 2015-2021, a conference most observers consider to be college football's best. The pinnacle of the Green Wave's success came during the 2016-2018 seasons, when the squad made three consecutive BCS National Championship Game appearances, winning the title matchups in 2016 and 2018. However, following a current run of five consecutive non-conference title winning seasons, the university decided to part ways with its long-time head coach after not being able to come to an agreement on dollar value.

"I'd be lying to say that getting to play Tulane every year did not weigh on my decision," said Geezy, who admitted that he's anxious to face the Green Wave at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome this upcoming season, who as previously mentioned, have defeated the Tigers in ten straight meetings while under Geezy's leadership.

"Payback is certaintly on the mind, but aside from that, I am just really excited to get to work and to help get this program back to the level it was once at. No disrespect to Tulane, but you can literally feel it in your veins and in the air when you walk onto this campus or walk into Tiger Stadium that this is something bigger, more meaningful than anything we ever had or could ever achieve at Tulane, even in those title years; you just know it and feel it that you're going to be under a much bigger microscope week-in and week-out at a program like this. Despite the run of lack of success here at LSU and the resurgence we had in New Orleans, you know through-and-through that this state craves seeing the Tigers being a contender again, and I intend to deliver just that, in addition to ending the losing streak against Tulane.

"Oh and when we do beat Tulane, you best believe that our band will be playing 'Neck'...go Tigers!!!," Geezy exclaimed just before walking off the podium to a sudden burst of loud cheers from LSU fans at the news conference.

Click here to view 2026 LSU Tigers Lineup/Key Players

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