re: Today's Rabalais article is very interesting!

quote:

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No, LSU has to go big. Go after a huge, tidal wave-making name, like Alabama did when it pried Saban away from the Miami Dolphins and like Michigan did when it brought home Jim Harbaugh from the San Francisco 49ers

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This sounds great in theory, but fails to consider the circumstances that surrounded those types of hires.

Saban was likely looking to get out of Miami and Bama just so happened to have an available job. If Bama had fired Shula one year earlier, Saban would not have been the Bama coach (he wasn't leaving the Dolphins after one season)

EVERYONE knew Jim Harbaugh was on his way out of SF. The timing just worked out perfectly for Michigan. If the search takes place a year earlier (when SF went to the Super Bowl), Harbaugh is not Michigan's coach today.

Meyer was out of coaching when he was hired at OSU. The same OSU program who had an opening ONLY because they were forced to fire a guy they really didn't want to fire (Tressel)

We've seen Texas put all their eggs in one basket (Saban) and come up empty. Hopefully LSU doesn't do that.

I have no doubt that LSU will pay whatever is necessary to bring in a new coach. The question is will that "splash" hire be available? Bama, OSU and Michigan were in the right place at the right time. Is Chip Kelley growing tired of the NFL? Maybe Pete Carroll is getting a bit complacent in Seattle? Maybe Jon Gruden isn't all that happy that Mike Tirico left? Who the hell knows?

The list of people who LSU fans would largely consider a "splash" hire is pretty short. Jimbo Fisher is probably the most realistic of the bunch right now unless there is something about another guy the media/fans know nothing about.

Finally, Rabalais uses revisionist history to judge the impact of the Saban to LSU hire. 1999 Nick Saban is not the same as 2016, or even 2005 Nick Saban. Back then, he was thought of as a good coach at MSU, but certainly not a name that EVERYONE had to have. Hell, many fans were skeptical because he was the guy that Dinardo hammered in the Indy Bowl just a few years before.