re: Two cents worth: Petersen

Would also make sense why CP’s long time OC and best friend Bryan Harsin wanted the Auburn job. He knew CP would be coming into the best and most competitive football conference soon and they could have fun teeing it up against one another.

You might just be onto something.

I wouldn't be disappointed in Petersen. A friend of mine has him as his top pick as well, and it forced me to look at him and his resume a bit because I hadn't thought about him.

That said, I think the sabotage is tinfoil-hat stuff. I imagine that the 2019 season was a pleasant surprise to SW as much as it was to me, and as AD his job #1 would have been to sustain any momentum he could, regardless of what he thought CEO's ultimate fate would be.

It would behoove you to remember some of the circumstances that affected the hiring of Pellini and Linehan. Due to LSU winning the natty, Aranda left AFTER all the other staffs had been put together, limiting LSU's pool of candidates since HC's generally make coordinator hires. Then COVID happened, and the whole world went crazy. Ensminger held on but I just don't think his heart was in it as much after losing his D-in-Law tragically and seeing CEO starting some self-destructive behaviors - Linehan was supposed to prop him up but just couldn't.

Then after a disastrous 2020 season, the writing was sorta on the wall, further limiting the pool of coordinator candidates willing to go run with a potential lame duck. LSU money and prestige don't outweigh the significant possibility of having to uproot your family again after a year or less.

Perception is often 90% of reality, and after 2020 the perception was clear that CEO was entering 2021 as win-or-get-fired.

If it ends up being Petersen, I'd be all for it. Solid coach and program-builder.

CP is no “re-tread.”

He is one of THE BEST CFB head coaches in the modern era.

quote:

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Call me crazy but I don't think Woodward really wants one of his retread hires. Will go with someone new

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Would you take Ohio State version of urban meyer? He was about the same retread CP is.

It was Carlos Marcello. JFK double crossed the Chicago mob. They weren't happy about it.

(As long as my OP is, I edited a ton out to hit the character limit. But I wanted to flesh it out on here because it just seems odd that no one has a former. SW employee with a great record on any real list, presently.
Especially when CP didn't rule out coaching again to ESPN, mere weeks after stepping aside. Again, we have to see it from Woodward's perspective, not a fan's.)

Another aspect about Petersen being a good candidate is how his hire would be perceived by Dr. Tate. Like or hate, the President of the Louisiana State University has a stake in this hire. I don't know or care much about politics, but we all are very aware both of the issues of note at LSU, and what Dr. Tate's hopes and leanings are.

CP does not, of course, check certain boxes in that regard. A look into his background does provide at least an assumed archetype. Born in a town just north of Sacremento, his dad was a coach out in a small valley town, so there is, presumably, whatever version of a bucolic, grounded, rural upbringing that area of California provided in the 70s. He has been exclusively a West Coast guy. I understand the assumed political implications that part of the country immediately raise among the ole baws. Frankly, it gives me some pause as well in relation to fit. I can't get past him living around the mountains all of his life and dealing with a flood or hurricane every so often.

Regarding he and Dr. Tate, however, we cannot ignore CP living and working in both one of the reddest states, Idaho, successfully, and also working well in one of the bluest enclaves, Seattle, in the country. It's no secret Seattle has gone extremely left- many, including myself, would argue disturbingly left- in the last several years. If there is a silver lining to this for CP at LSU, it's that he navigated that town and campus' political and cultural minefields very well, though he got out of coaching just in time to miss both Covid and the George Floyd summer, so we do not have him working through that situation...in Seattle...on the clock.

He would be prepared, in theory, to do the same under Dr. Tate and AD Woodward in BR. Again, it's not whether or not we, or even he, stands one way or another on issues, it's how he or any other coach who gets the nod, walks into the locker room in the Woke World. If he can do it out west with all those issues, he should do fine down in BR. He certainly has empirical evidence from O on what not to do when the fists are raised high.

Let's talk Compliance. There should be a pretty sizable bloodletting in the Football Ops office, soon. With all the dollar numbers being thrown around, has anyone pondered how much paper bag cash and comps are going to be thrown at the folks whose names we spit with vitriol up in Compliance because of the Title 9 handling and the weed policy?

Staying with my premise of the guy being Petersen, it seems inconceivable that a guy who has only lived in 3 legal-weed states would uproot to take a position at a Dixie school who throws out a Heisman candidate or a starring LT for the sweet leaf. Consider Aranda, a man of Cali, who has seen it firsthand at LSU and would most definitely not be happy if the policy is not corrected.

I really think Woodward is creating a new world, as best he can, for LSU Athletics. He is going to have to make some hard calls and dole out some cash to keep some mouths shut. It will be a hidden cost of business, but a necessary one. SW wants to turn the page and it will cost a lost, starting with O's $17 mil. The true cost may never be known.

It's all in the edit lol. And it's tough to work with a bunch of metal molds and type in a little box on a phone. Something to do on a cold day at work though.
I prefer to type it all out initially because breaking up what the case I'm making is tedious and tricky if I did it piecemeal. It would take forever to further reinforce my points by playing reply tag on here constantly. I think I've laid it out as best I could. I don't mind the inevitable roasting...it's just the internet and I'm bored. I'm just ready for whoever the guy is to get to the podium. Really, all of the candidates listed prominently would do just fine.