I'm not thrilled about hiring Coach O but its not the same as hiring Dinardo, Archer, or Hallman.

Reasons why this might be a good thing (in no order)

1. Recruiting. He is probably the one guy in the SEC who will be able to match Saban in terms of recruiting. We need horses on the OL and Coach O is probably our best chance to get them. Strong recruiting can make up for some deficiencies elsewhere.

2. Keeping Coach Aranda. We have the best DC outside of Saban. I'll dare say that if he keeps going the way he is, me will probably be as good as Arnsparger or Saban in terms of coaching defense. Ok. Great defense, strong recruiting, we are more than halfway there.

3. Team did play better and more consistent during O's tenure. There was no more playing to the level of the other team. We laid an egg against Florida but keep in mind Florida did win the SEC East although they are 9-3. We lost a couple of key guys on defense and they saw what Bama did in running up the middle and did the same in the second half. Having said that, the offense played better, players were happier, and we started setting records. That is without a true OC.

3. Mr. O has apparently learned from his mistakes at Ole Miss. He doesn't micromanage and lets his coaches coach. The man is highly motivated and this is his dream job. However, Houston Nutt got his dream job at Arkansas.....

Cons.

1. There is.... Ole Miss. It is the other elephant in the room and there is no discounting it. He sucked. However, he is hired. All we can do is hope, and I do mean hope, that he follows the paths of Pete Carroll and Lou Holtz, coaches who bombed on early coaching gigs and became successful. However, his tenure at Ole Miss is scary. The only bright spot is he garnered a great deal of talent, enough to make Nutt look good for two years.

2. This is more of a question mark but who will he hire as OC? Kiffin is good but he needs a boss like Saban to reign him in, not a friend who will let him do what he wants. Will Kiffin respect him? If he hires a good OC and stays out of the way, LSU can have a top notch program if O stays true to his recruiting ways.

I'm not thrilled about O but it's not all doom and gloom either. The kids have bought into him and that is important. The coaches bought into him and that is no small deal either. He went through a trial by fire this year so we have some idea how he will coach after his interim tenures at LSU and USC.

At this point, we have to hope for the best but there is some reason to have such hope.

Last time I checked, former Saban assistants weren't doing too well against their former boss.