The reports came out this morning that LSU cut off communication with Tom Herman and his agent at 5am.
LSU hired Ed Orgeron as their next head coach.
No real search. No testing the waters with other proven candidates. They fired Les Miles to hire Coach O.
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That still hasn’t completely sunken in with me just yet. Ed Oregeron is the full-time head coach at LSU after going 5-2 as the interim coach. He lost home games against Alabama and Florida, after his AD set them up for 5 SEC road games the next 2 years after making Florida come to Baton Rouge.
This whole thing was messy from the start. Ross Dellenger, from the New Orleans Advocate, reported today that the early reports about LSU being involved deeply with Herman were, in fact, true… but Herman’s people leaked the story to the press in order to make Texas make a move more quickly. Texas let it be known that they would be letting Charlie Strong go after the Longhorns were blasted at home yesterday 31-9. The announced attendance was 99,000+ people… but for media members that were actually at the game, there were no more than about 60k fans in the stadium.
Like I said yesterday, when the fans don’t show up, you’re done as a coach.
So, Herman’s people said they wanted to meet with Texas today, and LSU’s Joe Alleva became furious that Herman reneged on a gentleman’s handshake with the Tigers. According to GridironNow.com, Herman’s agent told LSU that Herman wanted to hear out Texas’s pitch, and Alleva became angry, telling them “Don’t worry. I have a guy who wants the job,” and made the quick hire and chose Coach O. Without weighing interest on any other proven candidates.
Apparently LSU was irate that Herman reneged on a gentleman’s handshake and just went with who they had right there in front of them.
They didn’t weigh the interest of upstart PJ Fleck. Didn’t check out Mike Gundy at Oklahoma St. Didn’t wait around for Larry Fedora. They didn’t think outside the box at all. They literally fired Les Miles, who ended up being a ground-and-pound coach that relied too much on his defense, to hire a guy that’s known as a ground-and-pound coach that relies on his defense. They hired Coach O with the stipulation that he bring in a world class offensive coordinator – even though the OC he brought in right after Miles was fired has set all kinds of records for offense at LSU even in just 7 games as OC. If you’re not impressed with the offense, why did you hire Orgeron? To please the fan base?
I’ve seen what happens when you hire a coach to please the fanbase. Alabama, after the 1996 season, hired Mike DuBose because of the public support for him after Gene Stallings retired. DuBose was “the perfect fit” at Alabama. He played for Bear Bryant from 71-74, and was Stallings’ defensive coordinator in 1996. But we saw what happened there – DuBose finished with a career record of 24-23, with 2 losing seasons. Now, he also went 10-3 in 1999 and had an SEC Championship. The Tide lost to Louisiana Tech that season, but also beat Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators twice – once in the Swamp, and again in the SEC Championship Game. None of it made sense.
Of course, this was also when the boosters were running wild, and it ended with Alabama being on probation and having a bowl ban in 2002.
This was a hire that made sense financially, and it pleased the fanbase. Neither of which screams that they’re super committed to winning. Which is basically what LSU was before Nick Saban came to town.
Now, I think Orgeron will do a fine job recruiting, and they’ll beat up on teams that they’re supposed to… but you saw this year what happens when they go up against great coaches and really tough competition – the Tigers lost 10-0 at home to Alabama, and 16-10 at home to LSU. They buckled under the pressure. Not a good sign for the future.
One of the stipulations is that Orgeron make a monster hire at the offensive coordinator position. It’s already getting out that Coach O wants to bring Lane Kiffin from Alabama. That makes sense – Kiffin has been a monster in Tuscaloosa – in 2 years, he’s already got 2 SEC Championships and 1 National Championships. In his 3rd year, with his 3rd different QB (and a true freshman, no less), the Tide is 11-0, and they’re setting all kinds of offensive records with Jalen Hurts.
But Kiffin already makes $1.4M per year at Alabama. Yes, his contract is up after this season, but that was put in more for him to move back to the head coaching ranks. With Tom Herman being hired at Texas, would Kiffin rather move to Houston as a head coach rather than Baton Rouge? If he’s not ready to get back into a head coaching gig, why would he leave Tuscaloosa, where he’s gone 37-3 as offensive coordinator and is making some major bank (and will likely get a raise after this year) to go to Baton Rouge and work under Ed Orgeron, somebody that worked as an assistant to Kiffin at Tennessee and USC.
And with Herman going to Texas, that means that his offensive coordinator, Major Applewhite, will not be able to join him in Austin, because of a lawsuit he was involved with after having an inappropriate relationship with a student athletic trainer on the Fiesta bowl trip after the 2008 season when he was Mack Brown’s offensive coordinator at the school.
So would LSU be happy with Major Applewhite as offensive coordinator?
And all of this, I would imagine, was done with the thinking that Dave Aranda would stay on with Coach O in Baton Rouge for the foreseeable future. Aranda’s defense has been incredible this year and he has definitely proven his worth. But it’s already coming out that he may be weighing a move to Austin to team up with his former college roommate at Cal Lutheran. If he leaves for Texas, and Kiffin stays at Alabama or moves to Houston as head coach, who does Orgeron grab as his coordinators?
The best thing about this hire is that they got O on the cheap, so they will be able to pay more for coordinators than other schools… but then it comes down to whether or not coaches believe in Orgeron enough to come work under him.
How much does LSU believe in Orgeron? Are they only giving him a 3-year contract? Surely LSU would be smart enough to make it a 5 year deal for the Coach. That wouldn’t be so bad at a modest $3M per year. It will be interesting once the contract details come out.
Congratulations to Coach Orgeron. This is his dream job, and he did a fine job of maintaining things after Miles was let go just 4 games into the season.
But the bottom line is that LSU violated the #1 rule of coaching searches: If you’re the only school that would make this candidate your head coach, it’s probably not a great hire.
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