Check This Round of the Coaching Carousel with O

If we can't land the top notch hire we're after this year, i.e. Herman or Fisher, why not grant O a de facto one year deal at a modest salary, and prepare to go all in on next year's hiring round? If a home run hire is not available next year, ride O year-to-year until eventually we land the ideal candidate... that is unless O's accomplishments in his de facto extended interim status warrant otherwise. Keeps the big money in our pockets until deploying it is warranted.

EDIT: For those hung up on what the appearance of a one-year deal would do to recruiting: I was referring to the spirit of the agreement not necessarily the actual terms: structure the contract as a mulit-year deal reserving LSU unilateral rights of termination with no buyout; it effectively works as a year-to-year deal although it is ostensibly otherwise. Recruits aren't typically dissecting the legal and commercial implications of contracts. A modest contract for O would be relatively easy to frame/defend as a function of his limited resume with respect to the position and not an indication of an intent to get rid of him in short order. O would take it for the same reason he accepted the interim position: it gives him a fair shot to earn a big contract at the school of his dreams.