re: Don't understand melt down over not hiring Herman...

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You also made the observation in passing (the first I've seen make this observation): We DON'T KNOW what all went went on behind closed doors. All we know is what has been "reported." For all we know, there may well have been (actually, I'll bet there were MANY) more possibles than Fisher, Herman and Orgeron.. Negotiations are done behind closed doors (and are NOT public information) unless one or more parties leaks the discussions to further their case.

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There's a very good reason for that. Something many people don't realize too, apparently.

There are many reasons an active coach would not want his current employer knowing he had any contact with another school. One is non-compete clauses. They aren't very common any more and if in place usually apply only to in-conference or to a rival. The other one that stands out to me is your current team is still competing for something significant; which is common because the successful coaches are still playing for something this time of year.

So what happens to guage interest will use a go between that does not have legal authority to extend, negotiate, or sign an offer, in LSU's case I suspect that person was Austin Thomas; sometimes they'll use a booster (security risk there). Can't use admin such as BoS because they represent the school officially. That go-between will talk to the targets agent only. Both sides have plausible deniability, and there's some compartmentalization for security plus if a non-admin employee such as Austin Thomas you can have them sign non-disclosures so if they do leak they can be fired, sued, fined, etc. It is also common to have multiple go-between options. That way you don't have one person who can feed information to one agent/candidate about the competition (part of that compartmentalization); my guess is Sharon Lewis was one of the secondary go-betweens. If that target coach doesn't want his employer to find out he was contacted (for whatever business or personal reason) then you legally didn't negotiate (go-between does not have that power) and you provided enforceable layers & compartmentalization.

In turn... we will never ever hear about it until many years later. If that. So to assume LSU only talked to Fisher, Herman, and Orgeron goes against what is basically standard practice. In the case of Jimbo it was publicly known and Herman is already somewhat of a mercenary and his agent would have conveyed secret or non-secret.

I'll give you an open example: During Ole Miss' coaching search Archie and the search committe did not have the power to negotiate or extend offers. So legally no one would be in a bind if contact was made and there was something like a non-compete clause they didn't know about (Agent's fiduciary obligation to disclose). They also tightly controlled all communication. Emails on a dedicated server and limited & controlled IP phones were the only one's used to make contact. Of course schools not named Ole Miss are very well versed in the control of phones for recruiting violations.

I do know a couple of the bigger LSU TAF funders, not the biggest fish but somewhat connected. They said Perry/TAF and the admin was very very tight lipped about any contacts and had prevented contact between certain AD personnel (including Austin Thomas) and boosters during this search. Though I wonder how enforceable that was. But that's beside the point, if those layers and compartmentalization was in place that means there was very likely one or more non-disclosure feelers put out that were returned 'no interest'. Logic says that's true. So that assumption of the limited search is wrong. Just only a handful of people know how expansive it was and the names involved.

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Alleva proved why guys like Mal Moore and Foley will make LSU and him their bitch for the foreseeable future.

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Being Foley retired in October at 63 after 25 years as AD, I don't see that happening.

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What hostage? LSU could have still gotten O a freaking month from now. There was absolutely no reason to rush this hire and settle for a guy with a historically bad coaching history as a head coach.

No one was going after O, but Alleva proved why guys like Mal Moore and Foley will make LSU and him their bitch for the foreseeable future.

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Exactly. Even if Texass had Herman and we got a firm no from Jimbo, I'd be OK with it. I just don't like having a proven loser.

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There was absolutely no reason to rush this hire and settle for a guy with a historically bad coaching history as a head coach.

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His HC history at USC and LSU was bad??? RU4 Real?
The rush is to solidify recruiting and remove the guesswork NOW. It's a shame you weren't distributed your fair allotment of brains