The long history of government ahem involvement at LSU authored a new chapter this week, as Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry essentially fired Athletic Director Scott Woodward via press conference.

During what was nominally a briefing on state funding during the government shutdown, Landry declared that Woodward would not be the one hiring a new head football coach, instead tasking a school board (that he largely appointed) to the job – something that was apparently news to said board members.

Perhaps no program is more intertwined with messy state government officials than the one in Baton Rouge, dating back to Huey Long’s election in 1928. His first act upon arriving on campus was to fire the marching band director, and demand that the Golden band From Tiger Land quadruple in size. That’s him, pictured above with his prized new marching corps.

Long diverted so much public money to flow through Tiger Stadium – literally, as he had dorms built into the facility so he could appropriate more funds for seating expansion – that the state of Louisiana essentially subsidized the rise of the football program.

Louisiana politicians have since tried to reprise Long’s role to varying degrees of success, each understanding that there is no better political point to score in the state than to be seen as an ally to a national title-winning Tiger team. Notably on the unsuccessful side of the ledger, Bobby Jindal likely preserved Les Miles’ job in 2015 and Landry himself made a big show of trying to reinstate the live Mike the Tiger mascot at games.

So when a sitting governor both hosts the meeting to decide that the school will front over $50 million to fire Brian Kelly, and then muscles his way into a visible nationwide coaching search, it doesn’t feel all that strange – it’s just LSU being LSU, and the band is pretty good, after all.

If we’re going to make it the title of the article, we should throw a mention to one of the most memorable pop-punk/emo/alternative songs of the 2000s. Early My Chemical Romance albums had an enormous hold on this author, mostly from the Helena music video showing up nonstop on MTV late at night.

Worthwhile just to hear Julia from America’s Test Kitchen say “Waka Flocka Flame”, this is a sanitized but pretty solid recipe for making wings at home.

No. 9 Vanderbilt at No. 20 Texas (noon, ABC)

Vanderbilt has never won a game in which a Manning appeared, currently 0-8. The Commodores have lost once to Archie (1970), three times to Peyton (1995-97), and four times to Eli (2000-03). Arch did not record a stat in last year’s win over Vandy, making his potential absence this weekend loom larger as Clark Lea’s team looks to avenge more generational trauma this season.

No. 5 Georgia vs Florida (3:30 pm, ABC)

A sobering realization: I will never write anything quite as funny as this real quote in an ESPN article about Gunner Stockton’s grandfather:

Todd Grantham killed Gunner Stockton’s granddad, dogs by a million.

Mississippi State at Arkansas (4 pm, SEC Network)

Both teams really, really need to win this game. That is usually not a leading indicator of a well-played contest.

No. 7 Ole Miss vs South Carolina (7 pm, ESPN)

Is this the week for the South Carolina upset win? Is this the week for the dumb Ole Miss loss? Are we going to keep typing those two sentences for the rest of the season?

No. 14 Tennessee vs No. 18 Oklahoma (7:30 pm, ABC)

Genuine playoff elimination game! Brent Venables provided the rest of the country with a blueprint to slow down the Tennessee offense a year ago, but with joey Aguilar slinging the rock this Volunteer team looks like a different challenge. Whether the Oklahoma offense shows up is probably what will decide the result, but don’t be surprised if special teams nonsense plays a huge role.

Kentucky at Auburn (7:30 pm, SEC Network)

Loser leaves town match?

Breaking out of the marching band standards is always fun, especially with a band that can match the right energy to cover Nirvana with sousaphones. Tremendous work by the Texas Southern Ocean of Soul.

Ignoring this week’s usual cadre of all-black uniforms for Halloween weekend to step back and correct a grievous oversight from last week because New Mexico might have pulled out the threads of the year.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, absolute perfection.

North Carolina at Syracuse (7:30 pm, ESPN)

We’ve given the whole Bill Belichick thing a lot of (deserved) grief in this space, so it’s only fair to put a matchup where the Tar Heels might find some joy on the list. Actual crazy person Fran Brown has the Orange program steadily on the rise, and would love nothing more than to hang 70 on Bill, but an early season injury to quarterback Steve Angeli completely throttled the offense. Sportswriters across the country have already finished their “Have Bill Belichick and North Carolina Finally Turned a Corner?” prewrites in anticipation.

Navy at North Texas (Noon, ESPN2)

Big implications for the G5 playoff spot here, as undefeated Navy enters a brutal stretch of their schedule. It still feels like the American conference champion will get the bid, but Tulane’s shock loss to UTSA on Thursday removes some margin for error. If either of these teams wins out, the spot is theirs.

No. 1 Ohio State vs Penn State (Noon, Fox)

It would be extremely funny if this turned out to be the moment the Nittany Lions finally get over their Ohio State stumbling block.

No. 13 Texas Tech at Kansas State (3:30 pm, Fox)

Everyone forgot about the Wildcats after a series of weird losses to start the season, but they have an excellent opportunity to fully derail Texas Tech’s playoff push here. There are still too many possibilities to sort out in the Big 12 race, but this is a defnitely turning point for the conference.

No. 17 Cincinatti at No. 24 Utah (10:15 pm, ESPN)

Hey, speaking of that race, whoever wins this game steps into the top challenger role – behind Texas Tech and still undefeated BYU.

Praise be, we enjoyed these things, some of which require a subscription.

Happy 25th anniversary to Stankonia. Matt Brown at Extra Points put FOIA to work in figuring out what just about every public university spent on their golf programs. The shooters over at FOIAball uncovered some details about Mike Lombardi’s trip to Saudi Arabia. RIP to Uni Watch, a truly formative website for me back when it was on Page 2 at ESPN, and will no longer be publishing after 26 years. Sports Movies That Don’t Suck with a wonderful episode about Space Jam, a movie I still remember seeing in theaters at age four.