Take a step back and look what the other big time programs have done in terms of hiring during recent years... (Got the following info/analysis from another post from another board...) Ohio State = Jim Tressel from Youngstown, not exactly a super-star Oklahoma = Bob Stoops, the DC at UF who had never been a HC USC = Carrol, a washed up, failure as an NFL HC Miami = Coker, promoted a coordinator from within after Alvarez said nope Notre Dame = Weis, hired him after Urban Meyer said nope UF = hired Urban Meyer who has only been a HC for 4 years at Bowling Green and Utah, and don't forget, 3 years ago they hired Zook after both Stoops and Shanahan said no thanks Kind of brings you back down to reality doesn't it?
Great points... I made a similar less thorough point on an earlier thread "...skip got rolled...". According to Chris Landry, it is almost impossible to uproot quality coaches from successful college programs...it just doesn't happen. Would Nick Saban had left LSU for another college?...don't think so. The type of coach that most of the fans on the message boards want go to the NFL.
I'll chime in. Les Miles may very well turn out to be a great HC, but that would make LSU just plain lucky. This coaching "search" seemed VERY rushed and looks like we had a "Panic Attack and Grab the First Guy You Can" kind of approach. I realize that Wayne High-Zinger made certain that LSU would be hiring a coach AFTER everybody else hired theirs, and maybe this is the best that even Skip can do under these circumstances. If we LSU fans want to get upset and angry about this hire, then we should be as angry with High-Zinger, whose devilish plan put in this spot, and SABAN, for ALLOWING High-Zinger to impose his Satanic plan on LSU. Saban was available to talk on the day after Thanksgiving, but does HZ call him then??NOOOOooooooo. HZ cleverly waits until AFTER the Gators hire Meyer, i.e. two weeks later. The timing of Saban's departure has put LSU in a World of Hurt . . . it affected NOT ONLY our preparation for today's bowl game, but it also adversely affected our ability to make a new hire from a large pool of available proven head coaches. Everybody was DONE hiring new coaches, and LSU was just getting STARTED. Folks, we can't cry over spilt milk. The fact is that LSU was headed to being a Dynasty and Wayne High-Zinger threw a BIG monkey wrench into the plans. We are starting OVER from square one now. Forget about winning the NC next year, because it is NOT fair to expect Coach Miles to achieve that while implementing his plan for the program. Forget about the SEC Championship for next year, too. I don't think that it is fair to have such high expectations next year with a new HC. If we can have a winning record and go to a decent bowl game next year, we will have been successful in 2005. By "decent bowl game", I think it's fair to say that a bowl game that happens on 31 Dec or after fits the bill.
But is it rushed, JeanLaitte?? In the past week or so, it came known that Saban mentioned to Skip, "should I ever leave for the NFL" coaching-list long before any of us knew a thing. When all of the "unknown" surrounding Saban's decision were still up in the air, Skip could very well have been compiling things. What I'm trying to say is: Just because it's only known to us that they've been looking for a replacement for Saban, doesn't mean that it hasn't been delt with long before we ever knew.
