First, let me say that I am a little torn on Miles potential departure. I’ve been looking at this A&M game since the Bama loss as the “make or break” game for Miles. If he loses against A&M (even despite a potential distraction excuse), we definitely need a change. If he wins, I hate to pay $15 mill to fire him, but things have gotten stale and a change is probably needed. I think it was John Madden who originally said that no matter where you are, after about 10 years coaching somewhere, things tend to get stale.

I don’t know if any fan base has ever been so splintered over the course of a coach’s career than LSU fans have been over Miles. This new potential hire really needs to be a homerun so we can simply unite our fanbase once again and provide a much needed jolt of energy to our program. Since it sounds that Miles may already be on the way out regardless of Saturday night’s outcome, I feel that there are VERY FEW candidates that are both realistic AND potential upgrades over Miles.

Jimbo Fisher is the obvious best choice. He is the safest option and I think he would provide the most seamless transition to success in 2016. It would be pretty cool if he could reunite with Bo Pelini as our DC as well (They won the SEC west together in ’05 and were 22-4 coaching at LSU together). I have to believe we could beat his salary at Youngstown state (although hopefully he would stay up in the booth during the games).

Chip Kelly is an exciting choice but he seems a little out of place down here in the south. At the same time, there are plenty of northern implants coaching down here that have done fine. I don’t know how much of a factor that would make in recruiting, but certainly Jimbo would be much more familiar with the territory in comparison. I don’t follow pro football that closely so I haven’t watched Kelly’s Eagles too much, but it seemed like his Oregon teams were on the finesse side of things, while I like a more physical team.

Bill O’Brien is a coach that I have liked a lot. I just googled him and apparently he is unhappy with the Texans and has shown interest in the Maryland job. One would think that if he would take the Maryland job, he would take LSU if offered, however I think he coached at Maryland before and the Under Armor CEO is apparently ready to offer him big money. He also doesn’t seem to stay in places very long and I would feel like he is someone who could bolt LSU if another good opportunity came up.

If the above guys don’t work out, the only other names that I think have the potential to be good at LSU and are realistic are Larry Fedora, Tom Herman, and Todd Monken (especially if he can beat LA Tech this week). These certainly don’t bring the excitement and name recognition as the above, but I think they are good coaches and worthy of interviews.

My point is, LSU had better be darn sure they can get one of these guys, otherwise, they need to stay with Miles despite him being on thin ice and its effect on recruiting.