Someone explain a smokescreen to me

In the purest sense, its a tactic that creates a barrier to prevent others from seeing which direction you are going. But in order to have that screen you must throw something out there to cause others to lose sight of you





The bigger the target, the bigger the smoke needed. If you are hiring Tom Herman, you could probably hide it by calling a different agent and inquiring about a G5 coach. Not a lot of effort needed

But if Saban let you know hes interested, then you keep throwing names all over the place, to keep someone from tanking that option

Example A: Miles was getting fired. Jimbo (a pretty big fish) was a done deal. But EdO and the Rosy Fich Boyz had plans of their own. A massive leak campaign, and an incoming governor who used a budget crisis to derail that deal. They blew everything up. Made people think Jimbo was too costly, so the job could still be available for Ed

Example B: Same crew leaks what LSU was going to pay Jimbo. Herman suddenly wants more money. Alleva says NO. Then Texas opens up. We hire Ed for dirt cheap instead.

Alleva had no clue that an effective smoke screen was needed for each hire. His transparency killed 2 really doable deals.

Woodward is far superior to Alleva

If you don’t like or agree with something = smokescreen

I don't think "smokescreening" is an intent, rather just a byproduct of the process. You diligence and interview a list of candidates, talking to their agents along the way. So it is factual in a sense that candidates A,B, C through Z are being considered. You probably would even float hypothetical or draft contracts for each of the coaches. Those names get out and they get play and get raises from their school; everyone wins. And at the end of the process, you narrow it down to your actual pick and take it over the finish line.

Good agents will float their clients name when a program like LSU is available. Just about every coach on the planet has been asked about their interest in LSU. But some searches are different and this time it is. I expect a lot of the misinformation is organically simulated by agents. I also believe Woodward and others are contributing to this to protect the man they have identified. Don’t think this search just started after the Florida game. Woodward knew before the 2020 season that O wasn’t going to survive. Expect he started then so these Johnny-Come-Lately candidates were never considered. Again, who do you think Woodward is considering offering a $100 million dollar deal to? That list is very small.

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It's really looking like Jimbo Fisher is coming to LSU.

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based on what?? Nobody knows shite. right now we have no clue who will be here. sure, it will be one of the names everybody keeps throwing around. someone will be right eventually if we keep throwing shite against a wall.

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explain a smokescreen to me

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basically it goes like this:
poster A has a coach he really likes
poster B claims he has sauces that say another coach is the guy (probably falsely)
poster A rationalizes this by saying that poster B's guy is a smokescreen so they can keep believing that their coach is the guy

wash, rinse, repeat

It's a word used to make coaching searches seem more interesting than they really are.

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Someone explain a smokescreen to me

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Fickell is a good coach but not a $100 million coach just yet. Keep thinking along these lines of a $100 million coach intersecting with not being seriously mentioned.

I can only tell you what Woodward did at A&M. He knew there were leaks in the athletic dept. So I believe he floated information to various folks to find the leaks. Then he would fix those leaks.

End result. Nobody knew shite during coaching searches until it became public.