<<<Disclaimer: This post in no way is intended to be a judgement on Les Miles and his body of work or an endorsement of Miles leaving LSU. It's meant more of an indicator of the appropriateness of Pelini and Crowton as a head coach. End of disclaimer>>> This is a complete hypothetical but wanted some opinions on Pelini and Crowton. Let's fast forward to January 2008. After much prodding by his wife and a Rose Bowl appearance, Lloyd Carr calls it a career. Wolverine alum Les Miles get offered and accepts the job in Ann Arbor. Let's say Crowton and Pelini both have solid seasons in '07. Would either or both be considered for the head job at LSU? Would you feel comfortable with either as the head coach being the "face of the program?" I bring this up b/c a friend and I had a conversation over the weekend about who I would want if Miles ever left LSU. I mentioned taking a long look at Bo, but he said if Pelini was that good of a head coaching candidate he would've landed a position by now, i countered with "he's waiting for the right job to come along". My take is that Miles has two of the best coordinators in the country and both would be strongly considered. I wanted other people's takes on this.
I would be very worried if either of them became our head coach. Crowton has shown he is not a good HC. Pelini doesnt like to recruit, which is 50% of being a CFB coach. And if he did recruit well I dont think he would make a good HC. Neither of them are HC material, IMO. LSU is an a top program. We can afford to get a great coach.
Well, we can look back at Skip's stated criteria during the last search for some clues. I remember Skip clearly stating that LSU wanted someone w/ prior and "meaningful" (i.e., from a decent-sized program in a decent-sized conference or NFL experience) head coaching experience. That would automatically cancel out Pelini and most likely Crowton, as one would need to stretch a bit to call BYU and the WAC "meaningful" in the sense stated above. This is a "big boy" program now, and I can't see any coach w/o a few years of HC experience at a big program taking over at LSU. Still think two names you'd hear are Jack Del Rio and Terry Bowden.
whoever had "4" as the over/under of responses till nick was mentioned gets the prize. don't worry cajun, i know you were joking (thanks to the chuckiling smiley). thanks to tejas for bringing up the skip criteria (as i forgot) b/c he would still be the AD at that time. if it's true that pelini isn't that big on recruiting and is happy with being a coord, then i'd be ok with keeping him as the DC for as long as possible.
Please realize that my following commet comes purely from past experience in LSU's hiring an assistant as HC: Not just no, but hell no. Seriously, Pelini *might* give me pause, but if he doesn't like recruiting, then that should disqualify him right there, IMO. Speaking of assistants, I've read that Jimbo Fisher has said HC at LSU is his dream job. If he landed a HC position in the next few years and did a decent job, should we consider hiring him? Edited to add: We all know the Saban thing's a joke, but I somehow think he'd take it seriously...
What About Jimbo? Just wondering what your thoughts on him were now. I still believe one of these days he's going to get that HC job somewhere and some team is gonna start heading in the right direction or continue to. I'd have to agree that to hire a coach with no HC experiences is a bad idea especially in the SEC and for any school who has/been there and is doing that. Honestly I can't see Les Miles heading to Michigan neither will Harbaugh escpecially now after his comments lol.
Alot of LSU people don't like Jimbo for some reason. I was never one of them and always thought he did a good job for us. However, if he didn't get the job after Saban left, why in the world would LSU think about hiring him hypothetically if Miles left after next season?
Spurrier might be tempted to finish out his career at a school were he can actually go out on top, esp with his dissatisfaction with the USC powers that be.
