Will Wade Confirms He’s Taking LSU Job After School Parts Ways With Matt McMahon

The path for Will Wade to return as LSU head coach for the school that fired him just four years ago cleared another step Thursday. Sports Illustrated’s Bryan Fischer reports LSU was in the process of parting ways with current coach Matt McMahon, with an eye on an official move to rehire Wade after that.

Wade has been on a quite a journey since he was fired near the end of the 2021–22 season. He led two different schools to the NCAA men’s tournament and then bolted from both. In order to coach the Tigers again he’s leaving NC State one year into a six-year contract. Wade confirmed he was taking the LSU job in a post on social media:

pic.twitter.com/7FVKZRNnDy
— Will Wade (@CoachWadeNCSU) March 26, 2026

While he was preparing to leave McNeese to take the NC State job he had said, “We all know what’s up,” so no one involved should be surprised, even if Wade sounded like he was staying just two weeks ago:

Asked Will Wade about the LSU rumors. Here was his response: pic.twitter.com/J1WfZtcWmT
— Shelby Swanson (@shelbymswanson) March 12, 2026

"To be very clear, I'm excited at NC State," Wade told reporters during the ACC Tournament. "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."

Shifting back to the short-term, this says a lot about the climate shift in college sports that LSU would bring back a coach caught on an FBI wiretap discussing a “strong-ass offer” to a recruit with a basketball middleman who went to prison. That was just four years ago, but it was in the pre-NIL era. These days you can’t coach anywhere if you’re not prepared to make strong-ass offers.

Wade won't be returning empty-handed either. LSU has also hired McNeese’s former president, Wade Rousse, and is also hiring McNeese’s athletic director Heath Schroyer. Wade spent two years at McNeese during his time away from Baton Rogue.

Will Wade coaching history

Wade began his coaching career at his alma mater Clemson as a graduate assistant. In 2007 he became and assistant coach at Harvard. After two years there he took an assistant role at VCU. After three straight trips to the NCAA tournament under Shaka Smart, Wade got his first head coaching job with Chattanooga. He went 40–25 before heading back to VCU to replace Smart when Smart took the Texas job.

Wade went 51–20, won an Atlantic 10 championship and took the Rams to the NCAA tournament twice in two seasons before leaving for LSU. The Tigers were coming off a 10-win season and had been to the tournament only twice in the previous 11 seasons. During his first year at LSU in 2017–18, they won 18 games. He then took them to the tournament twice in three seasons. He was about to take them back in ’22, but he got fired after the recruiting allegations came out.

After one year off, Wade resurfaced at McNeese and was immediately suspended by the NCAA for 10 games, but it didn’t matter. He turned an 11-win team that hadn’t been to the tournament in two decades into a 30-win team. In 2025 McNeese won its first NCAA tournament game with Amir Khan leading them out of the locker room.

Wade promptly left for NC State where he was rewarded with a six-year deal and Khan offered to follow him. The Wolfpack went 20–14 in Wade's first—and now apparently only—season and lost in the First Four, but that was apparently all LSU needed to see to convince the school that it was time to bring Wade home.

This article has been updated to add Wade's statement.

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