re: Who do we get to replace Austin Thomas?

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i still don't understand how he's so irreplaceable

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It's not a matter of "irreplaceability" Jake, it's value for price. We were paying him dick, he wasn't nailing down a coaching job and he was doing high quality assistant coach work. For example, Jenkins is just too old to recruit.

Now, we get a hotshot young DL coach who CAN recruit, and hire a young MBA graduate with football smarts that can take over the organizational, scheduling, recruiting planning that Thomas was doing? We should be fine.

Keep in mind, this kind of shite that Bama does (they have scads of Austin Thomases over there) is what keeps them well ahead on recruiting, year in, year out.

If anything we need to find the next 3 to 5 Austin Thomases, hire them and get them to work on our recruits.

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how do you do this legally?

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Have the contacts go through the assistant coaches. They won't be formally recruiting. They'll be doing the important social research - helping the assistants keep straight what kid likes what hip hop group, or family problems, general likes/dislikes. You have 10 coaches interacting with roughly 1000 kids per class over the course of the recruiting year, with maybe 60 to 100 key targets. These assets help keep all that organized and straight.

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AT could only recruit b/c of a stupid NCAA waiver that i'd imagine may never be given again

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Only actually, legally and officially. Bama has dozens of folks doing the kind of analyst/grunt work that we have a hardworking handful doing. Thomas, by all reports is FANTASTIC at this.

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how do you do this legally?

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You don't, outside of contact with them when they're on campus for a visit.

I'd also be surprised if it's within the rules for him to be doing player evaluations once he loses the waiver privileges.

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They'll be doing the important social research - helping the assistants keep straight what kid likes what hip hop group, or family problems, general likes/dislikes. You have 10 coaches interacting with roughly 1000 kids per class over the course of the recruiting year, with maybe 60 to 100 key targets. These assets help keep all that organized and straight.

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that seems like more of a manpower issue and not a talent issue. that kind of grunt works seems very replaceable

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naw. anyone can do this i reckon,

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Not true.

Les Miles

Family I'm sure is very restricted. Coaches, I imagine is not very restricted at all. I don't really see how restricting coaches from talking to each other would be feasible in any way.

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He left for USC we didn't miss a beat

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he was gone for 3 months. what did you think was gonna happen in 3 months?

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you mean replacing a position no one else in the country had?

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Austin was essentially the director of football operations, which everyone has.

people dont even know what he did, no wonder they assume he'll be so easy to replace.

spoiler: he wont be. people who are really good at their jobs are not easy to replace. god knows why but some here think we can replace great players and coaches with good ones and everything will be fine because LSU. as if we're magic.

doesn't work that way. we need Tier 1 to be Tier 1.