Tom Herman or not, Ed Orgeron and LSU deserved better than Thursday's debacle
BATON ROUGE, La. — In Louisiana, a lot of times prestige comes from what you know and where you got your information.
It’s darn near currency down in these parts.
RELATED: Mark May blasts LSU AD Joe Alleva
So it was humorous watching the LSU coaching search again become a public spectacle Thursday night.
Even as Ed Orgeron was coaching his poor heart out for LSU against Texas A&M, the news that Houston’s Tom Herman would be LSU’s next coach was all over the place.
Everybody seemed to have some form of the scoop. And it was so good, so juicy, they weren’t even going to let the guy who was apparently not getting the job coach his last game without the other guy becoming the headline.
Keep it classy, LSU.
It reminded me of a year ago, when word leaked that Les Miles would be fired and the talk got so thick, it allowed sympathy for Miles to build and, next thing you knew, at the end of a Tigers win over the Aggies in the finale, Miles was being carried off the field and athletic director Joe Alleva was declaring him LSU’s head coach going forward in the post-game press conference.
Fast forward a year. Miles was gone five games after being carried off the field. Orgeron became the interim coach, then a candidate to be the head coach. After last week’s loss to Florida, that was assumed to be over.
All that’s fine. Maybe Orgeron didn’t do enough to get the “interim” taken off his title.
But what happened Thursday?
Awkward at best.
Even as the game was unfolding on ESPN, the news that Herman would likely be named the next head coach by Saturday was scrolling on the breaking news bar. Beat reporters and sideline reporters were invading the visiting athletic director’s box for confirmation and were being shooed away.
It was comically awkward, and you felt for Orgeron, who was coaching a game without Leonard Fournette, Kendell Beckwith, Arden Key, and Travin Dural, four likely NFL players. He was on the road. He was on a short week.
And the Tigers came out and played well, which reflects extremely well on the job Orgeron did this week.
That deserves respect. The same way Miles deserved more respect than he got last year when he was left twisting in the wind for a couple of weeks as reports surfaced that he was on his way out as LSU struggled through a three-game losing streak.
In LSU’s (somewhat) defense this year, it appears the Herman reports weren’t being initiated from LSU inside sources, but from Texas. As more reports were made, LSU released a statement during the game, with Alleva saying in part that “there has been no decision made on who will be the next football coach at LSU.”
The storm started with Texas’ Scout.com site, with Chip Brown reporting that LSU was closing in on a deal with Herman. Then the ante seemed to get upped by Geoff Ketchum of Texas’ Rivals.com site, who tweeted that high-ranking Texas sources were telling him that Herman had accepted the LSU job.
He later backtracked a little, saying he wasn’t reporting that Herman was going to LSU, just that his Texas sources told him it was happening.
Other Texas sites followed, saying that Texas was moving away from Herman and leaning toward keeping Charlie Strong for another year, because in their mind, Herman was off the table.
Of course, everybody else followed. ESPN.com’s Chris Low reported that the deal could be done by Saturday, which gave the most important media outlet in sports its own reporting to scroll at the bottom of the screen.
And just like that, another LSU coaching situation became a full-blown circus.
And just like that, Jimbo Fisher was being swept aside from the discussion. We assume he turned it down. And maybe it’s a good thing for him. No need to go somewhere where the soap opera is almost as big a part of the sport as the game itself.
Alleva had better finish the deal with Herman because this already doesn’t reflect well on him. If that deal doesn’t get done, LSU might need to keep Orgeron as interim coach while they name somebody else interim AD.
And if Herman is named head coach, Alleva is going to have to deflect the talk about the hilarious hiring process and refocus it on how great of a hire Herman – an offensive guru and the hottest available coaching name of the moment — is for the Tigers.
Make no mistake, this would be a home run hire for LSU.
Of course, if he had kept things quiet, the way they should be, that would obviously be the discussion on the day he’s named.
But then again, if Alleva was able to keep things quiet, maybe Fisher would be LSU’s coach right now, finishing his first season as head coach. But that hire was screwed up by loose lips.
Will this one be screwed up too?
Alleva is an arrogant prick. Fire him.
It took this to figure that out? Usually calling a fan base scared for rescheduling a game due to a hurricane isnt a sign of good character.
Amen to That
None of this Tom Herman crap today came from LSU –
All came from UT beat writer then perpetuated by ESPN THEMSELVES! Mark May owes LSU an apology.
Yup. It’s ridiculous to say “Stay classy, LSU.” We had nothing to do with it – the leak was on the other side of the fence.
Coach O deserves better. If Wommack does retire at the end of the year I would love to see O get a DC job at Ole Miss.
Agreed that he deserves better. The players love him, and play their butts off for him. Obviously I don’t know him, but by all accounts he’s a good man. Shameful.
I remember a “so called classy” Orgeron and Kiffin bolting from Tennessee to USC. Karma is a mother.
The reason they “bolted” Tennessee is obvious.
No, nobody at LSU deserves anything. They fired a respectable head coach in the middle of the season just on the chance that you might be able to beat Alabama this year with someone else coaching. A generation of recruits saw this happen, and their parents, it’s not going to be easy to make people forget this. The aTm score sure didn’t change anything. The A.D. and his handlers should publicly resign and give the institution a chance to start completely over.
Yeah, Alleva is a disaster. But this one really wasn’t on him, no matter how much Mark Mays or SDS wants it to be.
TX writers trying to get TX AD off his butt and make a move… May have worked. It did rile up UH I hear..
so far our recruits are hanging tight… Guidrey was never solid, Ausbon I felt all along would go to aTm.. After tonight, he might flip back… I’m really not sure he’ll fit in that well at LSU anyway. But he will make good wherever he sticks.
” it’s not going to be easy to make people forget this” Our most recent political season proves that statement to be incorrect… people have such short memories.
Miles was fired because after years of saying he was going to change the offense, he didn’t. In the process, he lost the team and squandered away Fournette’s chances at a Heisman. The man is loved, but it was time to go.
No one had any ideas that shipping off Miles was the answer to beating Bama.
I agree this is not LSU’s fault, but if Joe Alleva was competent he would stand up and tell people what is going on. So much behind the scenes crap. I’m not saying he should let people know who he is going to hire but give a deadline every once in a while as to when the move will be made.
Wonder if LSU would consider taking ‘our version of Stoops’ off our hands? Hell, we could throw in the Kentucky Derby, Frankfort and The Great One to coach their basketball team.
As a Lifelong Alabama fan, I’d rather see Herman at LSU for the next few years than Coach O! and also, they should keep Alleva. He’s seems to keep it interesting you know, (like watching train wrecks)
I love Coach O…he is pure South Louisiana. What’s all this about his lack of poise and his voice. This man obviously has great character and is a great coach…He Loves our Tigers…I say he should stay!!!!!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I think this was put out to get a bigger offer from Texas. No way in hell Herman chooses LSU over Texas. Coach O will most likely be the hbc at LSU next year.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Florida Jeremy Foley let’s out a small chuckle while sipping scotch..
LSU fans, maybe this one is not on him, but this guy is a clown. He’s botched everything he’s ever touched. I use to have a lot of respect for LSU as did most Florida fans. But the way you all blindly followed Alleva down some crazy narrative around Florida ducking a game is insane. Calling out the most respected AD in the league for the past 25 years and drawing a line in the sand. firing, not firing then firing miles.. not to mention the Duke fiasco. The guy is classless and it’s starting to reflect on you… Get him out before he buries you further.