I agree as well. I think It's Franklin and Tucker and it may play into Woodward's favor that fewer are really mentioning Franklin now. Franklin has SEC experience and has done well at Penn St. , but knows the SEC. I'd be OK with Franklin, but might hold my breath on Tucker
Franklin still has the rape issues from his time at Vanderbilt. That's a huge issue to me. He's also worse than Les Miles at clock and game management. In huge games he's had the lead and at the ends of those games he blows it with awful timeouts used or NOT used, bad decisions on when to go for it versus kick, knowing when to go hurry up, etc.. it's been really bad. Hell of a recruiter though. He's screamed used car salesman for me for years though. Just a vibe. I've listened to Tucker, Fickell, Napier, and Aranda.. they're all exceptional football minds, imo. They each I think can be very successful here and this is a snapshot of their pros and cons to me. Fickell is hard to pull from Ohio and has no SEC or Louisiana roots. Has an incredible family atmosphere and sense of community around his programs, good recruiter, he's lost hot coordinators and still been successful, he's got Cincinnati ready for a playoff run which is crazy, but can you pull him? And what if eventually Ohio State calls? Napier has Clemson and Bama stops but hasn't run a P5 program but has amazing experience in state and in big programs. Incredibly detailed guy who sacrifices his own money and benefits for better staff beneath him and better facilities. What will be the staff he assembles? Good recruiter. That's a huge deal for all these guys, really. Aranda knows this place extremely well, but he poorly identified linebackers which is why we have a dearth of them right now, he was not a very great recruiter (he did pretty good with the linebackers he pursued though, just his evals were sketch) and recruiting DL to his 3-4 was a MASSIVE problem because in his scheme they just get pounded on. That doesn't disappear. Can he recruit here? He's had very little HC experience. Tucker has been an interim NFL head coach and had very successful NFL DC experience, he's been hired by Saban 3 times, he's coached at LSU before, he's constantly ascended the ladder in a style similar to Saban where he moved around a lot early on to better jobs so much that it became a question of will he settle. He left Colorado high and dry. He's a hell of a recruiter. Very good talent evaluator. He shouldn't have won a game last year. He shouldn't be anywhere near 7-0 right now. He gets average talent to play WAY above their talent level. (Most of these four guys do that, honestly.) Will he settle here? Will he find a good OC because that offense he has now is rough. He has 12 starters! 12! From the transfer portal this year alone. The portal is going to be more of a factor moving forward and he's used it as well as anyone. Lots to like about each guy. You're not going to find a perfect candidate. Even Lincoln Riley has his flaws. Too loyal to assistants being one. So we will see. Here's the story on Franklin and the rape video at Vanderbilt. Woodward is trying to rehab our image. That will make the news here. You know some journalists are dying to dig at LSU given the Guice stuff and the Title 9 issues. It may not even get brought up at USC, though I've heard from a person I trust that the lady running the show at USC cares more about a clean image than anything with football, so that could hurt Franklin even at USC. https://www.si.com/college/2014/10/08/james-franklin-vanderbilt-rape-case-penn-state-video
Gonna be Tucker in my view. Tate wants a minority coach throw in O not bowing down to that march with the players it's a done deal that will appease the players I guess. I am going with my buddies prediction. It's the world we live in now. Here's to hoping he is a great coach and I will give him the 5 years I gave O unless he crashes and burns in a big way. Could be a great hire, I hope so. GEAUX TIGERS!
Brady is more of a popular name that people intuitively throw out, and while it may seem like a good logical choice but.. there are a few problems, as you brought up. Particularly, recruiting. From what I understand he doesn't like doing it. Doesn't care for it at all really... And he is pretty happy in the NFL not having to worry with it. I have a feeling it's gonna be either Jimbo, Tucker, or Napier, though I am not sure they wanna do the "homegrown" coach thing again for a hot minute...
Standing in solidarity with your players over something deeply important to them isn't caving. He said he would treat them like his own kids. Except he changed and he didn't. Saban marched. If nothing else it was O's job to be there with them even if he didn't care about them enough to be there. And don't tell me he had some ethical stand over it. You know how many lies he's told recruits to get them? It's part of the job.
Recruiting and portal shit storm fixin to happen I just feel it. Walker Howard going to visit Notre Dame he WAS all LSU. Anderson has already decommitted hearing other chatter. I know this happens whenever a coach is let go but this one may be epic.
So be it. If politics derails everything, we deserve to fail. I’m still behind Woodward until this plays out. I don’t hate Tucker as much as I once did, I just don’t think he’d be my top choice. Even if we succeed we might lose players. That’s part of it. It’s up to the new guy to triage what he can. WW did a great job of that.
