BATON ROUGE - LSU's longtime athletic director, a trusted trainer who carried the program through three football national championships and ran a staff that was involved in 17 other national titles in various sports, is leaving his position to become Director of Performance Innovation within the department, The Advocate reports.

Jack Marucci served as the university's athletic training director for 25 years and is known for encouraging LSU to pursue research and innovations in sports medicine.

The institution announced Wednesday that Marucci would be transferring to a new position within the athletic department so as to oversee the university's sports science team.

In his new role, the 57-year-old trainer will focus on leading the athletic department's research in sports medicine and help to create a program to keep former players involved with the athletic department in their post-career years.

The Advocate notes that Marucci's new position is believed to be the first of its kind in college athletics.

With Marucci moving on to another role, LSU is looking to hire a new athletic director.