The 2025 college football coaching carousel is shaping up to be one of the biggest in recent memory, with several high-profile jobs across the country all opening up at the same time.
One of the biggest openings currently resides down in Baton Rouge, as the LSU Tigers are currently hunting for their third head coach so far this decade after parting ways with Brian Kelly last Sunday.
This is one of the best jobs in all of college football, and college football analyst Josh Pate joined ESPN’s Get Up on Thursday morning to discuss his top choices to take over the reins down in Death Valley.
“If I could get anyone that I wanted, I would go after Marcus Freeman,” Pate told ESPN’s Mike Greenberg. “If Marcus Freeman says ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ I’d say ‘Hey! I’ve cleaned up the political structure down here! You’re good!’ and if he still says ‘All do respect, no thanks,’ I’m not sure my list would look like there’s.”
It’s clear that Pate believes the current Notre Dame head coach is a perfect fit to replace the former Notre Dame head coach that LSU just got rid of, but he also believes that there are a ton of other names who have what it takes to succeed in Baton Rouge.
“My list would look like a guy who really, really knows how to coach ball,” Pate continued. “Someone who really knows how to harness the infrastructure of Louisiana, and that just means let them put the rocket boosters on you that they put on Les Miles, that they put on Ed Orgeron… I would have no problem going after a guy like Matt Campbell at Iowa State… Truth be told, there are about 25 or 30 football coaches in America that could win at LSU.”
