Scott Woodward's first year-plus as LSU AD has included "multiple tropical storms and hurricanes thundering across Louisiana’s coastline" and the loss of tens of millions of dollars in revenue, but Woodward, who took charge in April '19, remains "unflaggingly confident in his school, his department and the future," according to a Q&A with Scott Rabalais of the Baton Rouge ADVOCATE. Below are excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for clarity and brevity:
Q: Are you concerned that the athletic department may have to endure another round of layoffs and belt-tightening?
Woodward: I’m very confident our staff has done a thorough enough job to get us through. We have to be prepared for the future, but hopefully this is temporary. I am very optimistic about the future of LSU athletics. ... I don’t know when we will have a vaccine or a good therapeutic or a good solution going forward. But I have confidence.
Q: You have been emphatic during the pandemic about not cutting sports, which is happening at other schools around the country. Do you feel confident you will be able to avoid doing that?
Woodward: That is our first priority in what we do and how we do our budget.
Q: Are you hopeful that you may be able to expand capacity for [football] games beyond the current 25% limitations in Tiger Stadium?
Woodward: It will probably be pretty much the same. You never know. We’re ready if there is a change in the public health standards. But I don’t foresee it changing.
Q: What are your long-term concerns, not for this football season but for 2021 in terms of spring sports championships and hoping to have full capacity in Tiger Stadium again?
Woodward: We will plan and do things accordingly, like we did with reducing our budget and fixing our budget deficit. I’m optimistic. I hope we can have a lot more fans (a higher percentage) outdoors for baseball games than in Tiger Stadium and get Tiger Stadium back in 2021 to some semblance of normalcy (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 11/6).
