NC State coach Will Wade addresses LSU rumors: ‘Is the job open there?’

I’m like NC State coach Will Wade, whose response to a question after his team’s loss to Virginia in the ACC Tournament on Thursday about his interest in the LSU coaching job, was: “Is the job open there?”

The answer: not yet.

The guy who followed Wade, who was fired in 2022 after the NCAA slapped his wrist, hard, for recruiting violations (ahem, “strong-ass offer”) that wouldn’t be recruiting violations today, with cheating being legal, is a guy named Matt McMahon, who was hired away from Murray State, and just hasn’t gotten the job done down in Baton Rouge.

McMahon, whose season ended with a loss to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament on Wednesday, is 60-70, 17-55 in SEC games, in his four seasons at LSU, 15-17 this year, with a 3-15, last place, finish in the SEC.

You don’t need to be an LSU insider to foresee that McMahon’s days are numbered, and that’s before you find out that the buyout is just $8 million; they’d owe Lane Kiffin’s special teams coordinator more to buy him out, right?

Wade won at LSU: he was 105-51, 55-33 in SEC games, in five seasons there, getting NCAA bids in three of the four non-COVID years that he was there.

So what if he got his hand caught in the “strong-ass offer” cookie jar?

That’s all legal now.

“Listen, let me be very clear: I’m excited at NC State,” Wade told reporters after his team’s ACC Tournament exit, not that you can believe much of anything of what he says, but that’s what he said.

“I was hired at NC State to do a job. This wasn’t going to take one year. I’ve already met with our administration about next year and some of the changes that we need to make and some of the things that we need to do to put this program where it deserves long-term,” Wade said.

More from Wade on the topic:

“Look, we’re going to win and we’re going to win big at NC State. That’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we’re going to do moving forward. We have the resources we need. We have what we need, and it’s on me and my staff to get the job done.

“Look, this year hasn’t gone exactly how we wanted it to, but we’re going to rally and we’re going to work hard and we’re going to have a team next year that’s ready to roll.”

I would expect LSU to come at Will Wade with a “strong-ass offer” of its own to get him back down there on the bayou.

That one’s a second marriage made in hell.