Scott Rabalais: Search is "unsettled", hasn't gone the way LSU would have liked

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Athletic director Scott Woodward still has much work to do. For the first time, it looks as though LSU may have fallen behind in its search despite firing Orgeron six weeks ago. Especially with Florida having completed its firing-to-hiring quest in just over a week and USC reportedly pulling a shocking coup with Riley that no one from Baton Rouge to Norman, nor anywhere else, saw coming.

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LSU shoved out former athletic director Joe Alleva to bring Woodward home from Texas A&M in April 2019 because he was an LSU guy, yes. A Baton Rouge guy, certainly. But also for this moment. The moment when he would have to make the hire of hires at LSU.
To land a new football coach for the day Orgeron would falter.

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A day of phone calls regarding the LSU search left me with one word: unsettled. If there has been a plan in place, it hasn’t gone the way Woodward and his tight circle of confidants would have liked.

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As one source said, the names are dwindling, and everything is “way up in the air.”

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Do I think LSU folks thought they had a real shot at Riley? Definitely. But something kept LSU from getting across the goal line with him. At this point, you have to think that while LSU is willing to pay the salaries, pay the coaches, has the facilities and the recruiting base, there are headwinds coming from somewhere.

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Given where LSU is, it would not be shocking at all for Woodward to make one more run at the former LSU offensive coordinator, to offer him an eye-popping contract and say, as someone told me, “Please come back and help me.”

Chances are it will be someone else. Whoever it is, at this point, it’s going to have to be quite a catch.

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