BATON ROUGE, La. — This morning, LSU looked a little bit ridiculous and humbled.

It looked like the kid at the big boy table that kind of got sent back with the little kids.

It also looks like it might have found the right guy to be the next head football coach.

According to multiple reports, LSU will name Ed Orgeron as its head football coach this afternoon. That means the school struck out going after its main targets, Jimbo Fisher and Tom Herman.

Both Fisher and Herman turned down a ton of money. Fisher shot down the notion that LSU would be a better program to work for than FSU by opting to stay in Tallahassee instead of returning to the a school where he was a successful offensive coordinator.

As for Herman, by all accounts, LSU was completely played by Texas, which had sources that leaked news Thursday that a Herman-to-LSU deal was imminent, thus lighting a fire under Texas officials to work on doubling down to get him (and Houston officials to work harder to keep him).

Of course, it didn’t help LSU that Texas laid an egg Friday in a loss to TCU, thus sealing Charlie Strong’s fate there and motivating its powers-that-be that much more.

Whatever the case, LSU was humbled. Twice. So here is LSU this morning with egg on its face.

The Tigers went for the muscle pose and looked weak. They swung for the fences and popped up behind home plate.

The went to kick the field goal, only to have Lucy pull the football out from them while wearing burnt Orange.

And instead, the Tigers had to settle for the guy who was on the staff of the guy they fired. It’s Les Miles’ defensive line coach, for goodness’ sake. If you’re going to hire that guy, why didn’t you just keep Les in the first place?

So says the rest of the college football world. Auburn is snickering. FSU and the ACC are talking about you behind your back. Alabama is rolling on the floor laughing at you.

So hide your face a little, LSU, it’s embarrassing.

But don’t lose focus because you might have bumbled into a gold mine.

Orgeron is certainly a unique character in the game and part of his uniqueness is he’s truly a product of Louisiana. He’s a guy who has proven himself to be one of the best recruiters in college football. And as a guy whose roots are in Louisiana, keeping local kids to play for  the local school should be right in his wheelhouse.

How does the next Cam Robinson or Tim Williams not going to Alabama appeal to you? It should If LSU has those guys, maybe the Tigers win this year’s game against the Tide.

And if you weren’t paying attention, what Orgeron did this year as interim coach was pretty impressive.

The Tigers had all the reasons in the world to fall apart down the stretch after Miles was axed following a 2-2 start.

Instead, in his first game as interim coach, the Tigers played with their hair on fire and blew out Missouri.

That became a theme.

LSU came ready to play every week. Nobody played Alabama tougher than the Tigers in a 10-0 loss. Certainly, the week after, they’d come out flat against Arkansas?

Nope, LSU came out swinging and took the Razorbacks behind the woodshed.

One might look at the 16-10 loss to Florida and opine the Tigers came out flat there.

Not true. LSU dominated that game, but had a handful of frustratingly disastrous plays doomed them in that one.

And, of course, following the Florida game, the Tigers had all the reason in the world to lay down at Texas A&M.

Not a chance. Coach O had the Tigers ready and they rolled 54-39.

It added up to a 5-2 audition, pretty good considering the circumstances. It’s the second time he’s done it. He was 6-2 as an interim coach at Southern Cal in 2013. All accounts say the Trojans regret not giving him the job at the end of it.

Either way, he’s far from the same coach who failed at Ole Miss a decade ago.

Would LSU be regretting it, like USC, if it didn’t give O the chance?

Here’s what we know he’ll bring. He’s going to win signing days. Currently, LSU has the No. 3-rated class in the 247 Composite rankings. If he can improve that or even keep it the same, all the snickering about his hire will stop come mid-February.

He’s also going to have his team ready to play every week. We saw that this fall.

What does he need to do?

Let’s start by hiring an offensive coordinator. We love the job Steve Ensminger did — who would have thought this bunch had a 600-yard day in it, like it put up against Texas A&M, without Leonard Fournette — but Orgeron needs a guy who’s going to make offensive studs take a second look.

After Miles, LSU is a place where conventional wisdom says offensive talent goes to die.

This hire for Orgeron will be huge, almost as big as the head coach hire. Fisher and Herman are both offensive guys who were going to be the men who changed the perception of the LSU offense. Orgeron is a defensive guy. He needs the offensive coordinator who is going to change that perception.

Next, is he needs to keep Dave Aranda as defensive coordinator. And so long as some mid-major doesn’t pluck him away to be a head coach, he should have Aranda for another year or two.

And Orgeron needs to be in every living room of any stud in Louisiana. Get the proverbial fence up. If you can flip Dylan Moses from Alabama back to LSU, that will send a message.

USC made a mistake three years ago. LSU tried to make it as well. But Fisher and Herman wouldn’t let them.

So maybe LSU fumbled at doing the wrong thing and, at the end, did the right thing.