A scoundrel returns: Will Wade's LSU comeback makes perfect sense
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My first question: Is Will Wade bringing the boombox with him to LSU?
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My second question: Does LSU possess no scruples at all? Never mind, I know the answer to that question. LSU is a kingdom of rebels and renegades. Just win, baby.
Wade, Lane Kiffin and Kim Mulkey walk into … well, I can’t quite figure the punchline of that joke, but wherever they’re walking into, they’re probably going there to win, and if you try to stand in their way, they’ll just steal your players.
Vaudeville pined to cast a trio of characters quite like these three.
There’s Wade, the disgraced cheater, turned boombox-blasting Cinderella, turned prodigal son returning to save LSU.
There’s Kiffin, the — mercy, what’s the word for him, even? We’ll go with college football’s shameless and slippery renegade-in-chief.
Considering the company she keeps, Mulkey qualifies as the decorous statesman of these three amigos, but her enemies despise her with the fire of a thousand suns.
If you find either the sum or individual parts of this trio a bit odious, do you really think LSU cares? Not as long as they’re winning.
NC State athletic director Boo Corrigan said he felt “lied to” after Wade bolted back to LSU after one season with the Wolfpack. Corrigan will get no sympathy here. Don’t hire duplicitous renegades and expect them to behave as a straight shooter.
Scofflaw returns to LSU, as Will Wade vows to 'follow more rules'
In bringing back Wade this week, LSU became the first school I'm aware of to rehire a coach it fired for cause, just four years previously.
Never mind that Wade trampled on NCAA rules for several years, to the extent he got a pink slip, a show-cause, and a suspension, and his conduct resulted in LSU getting probation, scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions.
That “strong-ass offer” Wade once spoke of making to secure JaVonte Smart positioned Wade as a scofflaw, within an ecosystem that no longer exists.
After arriving back in Louisiana, Wade told reporters he'll try "to follow more rules this time."
Rules? What rules?
NCAA enforcement is a husk, not to be feared, and the LSU president and athletic director who fired Wade in 2022 are gone from the school.
With the sheriff out to lunch, long live the rebel, and fill up the stands.
Will Wade suits LSU's tribe of rebels and renegades
A few years away gave Wade some time for the stink to blow off of him. He even spawned an underdog’s tale at McNeese, set to the tune of a boombox, a year ago.
Now, it’s LSU basketball that stinks, and so Wade returns as a savior. The school hopes Wade will reinstall basketball relevance, like Mulkey delivered in women’s basketball.
If Wade gets LSU back to the Sweet 16, as he did in 2019, he’ll be hailed as a hero on the bayou.
“Will is a consistent winner, a diligent program-builder, and a charismatic leader with an incredible ability to connect with his student-athletes,” LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry said in a news release announcing Wade’s hiring.
The announcement naturally made no mention of Wade’s firing, the NCAA scandal, or the FBI wiretap.
In Louisiana, there’s no such thing as being too tarnished for a comeback, or too scandalized for a revival. As a fellow sports columnist who’s native to the state once said, “They love scoundrels down there.”
Do they ever.
Louisianans elected Edwin Edwards as governor four times. Edwards overcame a slew of scandals to make not one, but two, political comebacks before ultimately heading to federal prison.
In Louisiana, a scoundrel can be governor, and a once-fired cheater can be a savior.
Scruples get stomped in the Boot. Ethics and moralities, that’s so pollyannaish anyway in this no-holds-barred time and space College Sports Inc. finds itself in. A lawless enterprise suits LSU.
The current guvnah of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, made it clear he wanted to reshape LSU when he tossed out athletic director Scott Woodward. And, who would rise up to replace Woodward? That’d be Ausberry, whom LSU banned from attending football games in 2021, when he was also suspended for a month without pay after he mishandled allegations of domestic abuse and did not follow Title IX reporting requirements.
Remember, you’re never too tarnished for a comeback in Louisiana, so Ausberry took the reins of LSU athletics in November and swiftly made his mark by plundering Kiffin from rival Mississippi. Now, LSU would only love it if Wade could bring the juice (and transfers) to Tigers basketball, like Kiffin supplied for football.
Landry’s reconfiguration of LSU continued with the hiring of Wade Rousse as university president. Rousse previously was president at McNeese, the school that had rescued Wade from the scrap heap. And, so, the pieces quickly snapped into place for Wade to return to LSU.
“It's a chance to go home,” Wade said.
Home?
Wade’s from Nashville.
He’s spent his coaching career like a traveling salesman, living out of a suitcase before jetting off down the road to where business might be better.
And yet it makes sense Wade would see LSU as home. In Louisiana, a scandal is but a speed bump, and a scoundrel who arrives in a time of need receives a hero’s welcome.
Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LSU hired a cheater? Of course it did. Will Wade return was obvious