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Exactly one year ago, I got a text message from Jay Hardgrave, a radio colleague of mine and a good friend.
The message came at 5:21 a.m., and it awoke me from my slumber, which left me less than thrilled, until, of course, I saw what it said.
It read: “He got the job!!!”
As soon as I read the message, the sleep escaped my eyes and I hopped out of bed to start texting some of my other friends the same.
Jay was letting me know that Larose native Ed Orgeron had officially been hired to be the full-time head football coach at LSU – a source of pride for me and my South Lafourche community.
Now, for some background.
A day before the text message came across, Jay and I hosted a four-hour Black Friday radio program from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on ESPN – New Orleans.
The show was hot.
Last Thanksgiving, LSU traveled and took on Texas A&M and during the game, ESPN erroneously reported that the Tigers were going to hire then-Houston coach Tom Herman to lead the program into the future.
LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva was seen during the broadcast reading the report from a TV monitor, visibly furious.
After the game, Alleva trashed the report, stating that no decision had been made regarding the Tigers’ coaching position.
OK, so now, let’s talk about the show.
Because LSU’s head coaching position was so heavily in limbo, Jay and I fielded at least 10-12 calls during our radio slot from fans who wanted to chime in on the topic.
Jay and I wanted Coach Orgeron to get the job. For me, it was about community pride and the fact that I know several of his family and friends. I truly believed that he could do the job.
For Jay, he wanted Orgeron to get the job because of his ability to recruit and attract the top talent in the country to Baton Rouge, which, of course, greatly increases your ability to win.
The vast majority of the callers wanted Herman to get the gig and/or Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, who had been offered the job in 2015 when LSU made Les Miles walk the plank, then pulled him back into the ship before he jumped into the water.
The callers cited Orgeron’s losing stint at Ole Miss in the early 2000s and said that the LSU job was too prestigious of a gig to roll the dice on someone who wasn’t a proven winner.
OK, so now, let’s flash forward into the present and take a peek at how the Tigers did.
Herman ended up at Texas and his first year with the school wasn’t exactly all rainbows and butterflies.
The Longhorns finished 6-6 and will go to a low-end bowl game. The six wins came mostly against non-conference competition and bottom feeding teams in the Big 12.
Herman’s big selling point was that he was a supposed offensive guru who could revamp LSU’s struggling offense.
Well, with the Longhorns, that hasn’t materialized.
Texas ranked No. 58 in total offense this past season and honestly, those numbers are juiced up because they beat up on inferior competition.
Against the good teams on their schedule, they didn’t do nearly as much. They scored 17 points against Iowa State, 24 points against Oklahoma, 10 against Oklahoma State and 7 against TCU.
Herman’s season with Texas was disappointing enough that some media in Austin are beginning to question the hire – already.
Herman is combative and is reportedly difficult to work with. He’s rubbed people the wrong way and isn’t making many friends.
That stuff works when you’re Nick Saban and you’re going to the College Football Playoff. It’s not quite as easy to pull off when you’re 6-6 and are losing at home to Texas Tech.
Tom Herman is the biggest mistake LSU didn’t make.
Make no mistake about it – the Tigers wanted him badly, but backed out when his agent reported to ESPN that everything was a done deal during LSU’s Thanksgiving game, thus disrespecting the importance of what was happening on the field.
Alleva should have never wanted Herman in the first place, but he got lucky. Sometimes one needs a little luck in business.
Fisher wasn’t a realistic option last year (he very much was one in 2015), so we won’t spend as much time talking about him as we did Herman.
Hell, what’s there to talk about?
Florida State has been a complete dumpster fire from the first day of the season. The Noles were a preseason Top 5 team, then they got creamed by Alabama on the first day of the season.
Florida State started the season 1-3 and 2-5. They’ve since beaten Florida to improve to 5-6.
If they beat UL-Monroe on Saturday (a game they needed to reschedule to try and become bowl eligible), they, too, will be 6-6 and will play in a low-end bowl.
Fisher is flirting with Texas A&M and is trying to leverage (again) the Seminoles for more money.
He’s not worth it.
The dude hasn’t won anything without Jameis Winston.
He, too, is a great mistake that LSU lucked out of making.
Alleva got it right – by accident.
Orgeron hasn’t had a perfect first season with LSU, but the Tigers are young and have continually gotten better.
With all five offensive linemen back and a couple young quarterbacks to be excited about, I think 2018 will be a banner year.
It wouldn’t have been with Herman or Fisher. •
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