The upside of Coach Orgeron (from a notorious anti-O advocate)

well there we go. no herman, no jimbo. i made the case against O multiple times on this board. i'm disappointed as all get out to not get herman or jimbo. but then i started thinking about it:

if it takes 7 and a half million dollars a year to get them to come live in baton rouge louisiana, then frick them. no football coach deserves that type of money just as a question of economic ethics. if it takes begging to get them to leave tallahassee or a middling conference, then frick them. we don't need to be anyone's golden parachute for a job already done (jimbo) or a stepping stone on the way to the NFL (herman). but i digress, here's why this could be a great hire.

the one thing Miles had over everyone else other than Saban was that he was an amazing recruiter. coach o is even better. we will get the best players in louisiana every year. just like we do now. we will cherry pick from florida and texas like we do now. because O is amazing at relating to young men and their parents.

the problem wasn't that coach miles wasn't the smartest person in the room. the problem was that at a certain point, coach miles didn't know that he wasn't the smartest in the room. hiring coach o at a discount enables us to hire the best DC's/OC's in the land. yes, they might pick up and leave in a few years. but college football is an ever-shifting paradigm. today's futuristic offense is tomorrow's junk. some of these one trick pony OC's who are the flavor of the month now, might be on the trash heap once defensive schemes and personnel adjust. remember when gary crowton was cutting edge? O will not be tied to one scheme or one OC. he will be able to hire and fire based on the trends.

lastly, continuity. if you thought miles underachieved with his talent, then you saw the convincing wins over outmatched foes as improvement. if you thought miles had gotten complacent and bored, O is about as fired up as they come. if you thought Miles was too conservative with a lead, you watched O step on the neck of every opponent we got a lead on. and if the question is will O beat Saban every year? the answer is probably not. but either will anyone else. and that includes Herman. Or Jimbo. or any of the other sexy names being tossed out there. Saban is Saban and he will go down as the greatest college football coach in history.

coach O wanted to be here. he prepared. he wanted the job more than anything else and more than anyone else. this is his lifelong dream. if he fails it won't be for lack of trying. if he succeeds he will be here for the rest of his coaching life.

at the end of the day, O loves LSU. LSU will love him back. Geaux Tigers.