Working relationship has deep roots for AD, coach
Woodward, Fisher forged bond that set the stage for Aggies
COLLEGE STATION — Scott Woodward readily says he didn’t have some master plan in place in the few years following the turn of the century. That he and the LSU assistant coach whose meetings he’d sit in on would today be scheming to dethrone the head coach back then in Baton Rouge, La. — only all at different SEC stops in 2018.
“I couldn’t see past my nose,” Woodward recalled with a chuckle of serving as liaison between then-LSU chancellor Mark Emmert and then-LSU coach Nick Saban. “I was working so hard just trying to do everything I was doing, because I also had my ‘day’ job and was raising a family. I’m not one of those who thought about the future a lot.
“I did realize, though, that there were going to be some really good head coaches that came from coach Saban’s staff.”
Chief among them was Saban’s offensive coordinator at LSU, Jimbo Fisher, who welcomed Woodward to the typically sequestered scheming behind the scenes — the deep dives of offensive game planning that carried on for hours.
“I would stay after practice sometimes and just follow the coaches into their team meetings — but not the defensive ones,” said Woodward, now in his third year as Texas A&M’s athletic director. “That just wasn’t coach Saban’s thing. But I’d go into Jimbo’s meetings, and he was ecstatic to have me. I’d go in there and watch a little ball and learn.
“It was just a fun experience for me, and it was good for me, too, to show the football staff that, ‘Hey, I support you, and we support what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.’”
The experience also unwittingly built the foundation for what was to come at A&M — Woodward hiring Fisher in December to try and do what so many others have failed at along the way: topple Saban, who’s won five national titles at Alabama since 2009.
“I knew it from day one,” Woodward said, “that Jimbo was special.”
Interest started in 2000
From his side and starting in 2000, Fisher took note of the young go-between — each man was in his 30s at the time — with a keen interest in his game planning.
“Scott would just sit in the back of the room and see what we were doing,” Fisher said. “It was an example of a good administrator taking interest — he wasn’t trying to be (nosy). He was interested in what you were doing, and he liked the ball. That was really good in that relationship.”
Fisher said Woodward’s intrigue also helped LSU football in another way: the liaison seeing exactly what the program needed to be successful in the SEC.
“He always understood that from an administrative standpoint,” Fisher said. “Some people might have said, ‘Why exactly would you need that?’ They could not comprehend it, especially if it seemed like it might be something that seemed a little goofy, as one who didn’t understand the recruiting aspect of the game.
“Scott understood what we understood.”
Saban left Michigan State for LSU in 2000, and he hired Fisher from Cincinnati as his offensive coordinator. By 2003, the duo had led LSU to its first national title since 1958.
Along the way, the Baton Rouge native and LSU grad Woodward, in his “day job” as LSU’s director of external affairs — the link between the university and corporate and government officials — soaked in what it took to build a championship program.
“We were OK our first year at LSU — nothing special,” Woodward recalled of Saban’s first season in Baton Rouge. “We were 8-4 and played in the Peach Bowl. We had to get it going and change what had been done in the past. It doesn’t always measure in wins and losses (early on).”
Making it loud and clear
Woodward fired Kevin Sumlin in November following the Aggies’ inability to win more than eight games in a season since 2013. A&M was paying Sumlin $5 million annually, and it lured Fisher from Florida State for $7.5 million annually over 10 years.
“Hear me loudly and clearly,” Woodward added concerning progress not always being measured in wins and losses. “There are no excuses being made — we have high expectations. But we also know this is a process.”
Saban left LSU in 2005 for two seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins before reentering the SEC with Alabama in 2007. Fisher stuck around LSU for a couple of seasons with Saban’s replacement, Les Miles, before becoming Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator at FSU in 2007.
Fisher succeeded Bowden in 2010, and he won a national title with the Seminoles in 2013. Saban and Fisher are two of the nation’s four active coaches with at least one national title, along with Ohio State’s Urban Meyer and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.
Meantime, Woodward left LSU for a similar job at the University of Washington in 2004, and he became the Huskies’ athletic director in 2008. He hired Chris Petersen from Boise State, and within three seasons, Petersen had Washington in the four-team College Football Playoff following the 2016 regular season.
“When I brought in coach Petersen at the University of Washington, it wasn’t like the world was immediately set on fire,” Woodward said. “But you knew excellence was coming. You felt good about the foundation being solid.”
Now Woodward is Fisher’s boss in College Station, a big reason why Fisher said he decided to take the leap over the Gulf of Mexico and take over a program with deep resources and one trying to win its first national title since 1939.
“Scott and I always kept an open line of communication at LSU,” Fisher said. “We would talk constantly about what other programs had, and what we needed to be successful. In this league, you’ve got to find any edge you can.”