What Recent LSU Football Coach "inherited" the best team/rode the momentum?

Miles by a significant margin.

Les Miles 100%.

Saban started the ascend of LSU and built us into a powerhouse. He inherited an okay program.

Miles ends up inheriting a top end program from Saban.

O ends up inheriting a solid program, but a program that had ended up stale, and without a sense of direction.

Kelly should not even be included in your OP. Orgeron tanked this program to the ground in just 2 seasons. I appreciate 2019, but it’s remarkable how in 2 short years, Orgeron nearly destroyed LSU for a decade +.

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Miles
Orgeron
Kelly
Saban

in that order.

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Saban inherited a better roster than Kelly IMO

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Saban started the ascend of LSU and built us into a powerhouse. He inherited an okay program.

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Saban and Emmert completely changed the culture at LSU. Saban inherited solid talent drom Dinardo which he used to an impressive win over Illinois in the Sugar Bowl. Saban then built an incredible program.

Absolutely not . Recruiting rankings have changed in the time between the two , but you can look up the rankings and overall team star totals and Kelly inherited much more talent . Kelly has done way less with way more talent than Saban in his first 3 seasons . And the answer to the OP’s question is Leslie Miles .

Miles
Orgeron
Saban
Kelly

In that order.

The only question is whether to flip flop 2 and 3.

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Miles (by far)
Orgeron
Saban
Kelly

in that order.

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Arguments could be made for swapping Orgeron and Saban as Dinardo had done a lot before he was ousted...

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Let’s win an SEC or national championship with Kelly before he ranks above anyone who has .

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Feel free to rank folks how you feel but I'm confident in saying Kelly is a better coach than Miles or O.

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Les Miles 100%.

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Yep, though O got a lot of good players as well.

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Saban started the ascend of LSU and built us into a powerhouse.

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I would say he started the steep ascent. DiNardo pulled it up from the Hallman plunge. His last two seasons were not good but they were better than the record and not very far from being much better record-wise. 5 of the 7 losses in 98 were single-digit losses. 4 of those were SEC losses. In 99 it 3 of 8 losses, all SEC that were single digit. Another few games were close until late. Fricking Lou Tepper

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O ends up inheriting a solid program, but a program that had ended up stale, and without a sense of direction.

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Yeah, that plus the arrival of Burrow kind of hid his roster management issues. O got some really good recruits but he didn't seem to focus on needs so much as star-chasing. Star chasing is fine as long as you don't do it at the expense of needs, particularly in the trenches.

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Kelly should not even be included in your OP. Orgeron tanked this program to the ground in just 2 seasons. I appreciate 2019, but it’s remarkable how in 2 short years, Orgeron nearly destroyed LSU for a decade +.

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I think Kelly is about the same as Saban but for different reasons. Saban had some solid players with a few really good players but LSU was not yet a destination program. Kelly also got very good players and a school still known as an NFL factory so still a destination school. But he had more glaring holes and a very thin cupboard. In reality, only two coaches have arrive to a powerful fully functioning machine. Miles and O.