Les is one of the most successful coaches in the country, Alleva is a second-rate AD. Likewise, if you get rid of excellence in search of perfection, you have blundered. A top recruiter and consistent winner who has taken two teams to the big game versus "the best man available". Florida thought they were getting the best man when they hired Zook and Muschamp. Bama thought they were getting the best man when they hired Perkins, Curry, DuBose, Francionne, and Shula. LSU thought they were getting the best man when they hired Archer, Hallman and DiNardo. A coaching change is a blind luck crap shoot. You do it when you are losing, not when you are winning. Home runs are rare.
Given the right situation, I still think fRan has the ability to be a pretty good coach. His record at A&M shouldn't define his ability even though most point to his tenure there as sufficient reason to say he's not a good coach. At the risk of repeating myself, luck and the right fit come into play FAR more often then people realize. As a fan, I've just lived through that exact scenario with the firing of Anthony Grant. One of the few things I pointed to during that search was "who is available?" Again, repeating myself here...with Avery Johnson being hired, that was a stroke of luck he fell into Coach Battle's lap. (And he still might not be the right fit for Bama, or college in fact.) It's not much different than Mel Tucker coming to Tuscaloosa—stroke of luck with the right timing.
The first two of those three were the result of a second rate AD, IMO (with a meddling fan base and alumni group.) The later...geez, horrible timing with a very limited market for head coaches. It's similar to what @uscvball mentioned earlier with LK getting the USC job: a mountain of a task with a band-aid type of hire.
I recall the shock and disappointment among Trojan faithful when Garrett announced that Pete Carroll had been hired. Hindsight made Garrett look like a genius....and he wasn't. PC had the right opportunity and situation. It worked. Overall LK's record doesn't look that bad considering the lack of personnel and inability to recruit (one year with 13 kids coming in). But it wasn't enough. I was ready for him to go on a number of points. The gnashing of teeth hasn't stopped with Sarkisian. If he doesn't run the table the year, people will be calling for his firing, lol.
Sounds just like me in 2004 with Shula. 2005, despite a decent record, didn't do a darn thing to assuage my feelings.
The sooner the better... He's just digging the hole deeper and deeper each year. It's only going to make it harder for the next coach to get us out of.
Not really, how well did Gerry D do after taking over for Curley? saban after taking over for Gerry D? Bill Arns, taking over for Stovall? Archer for Arns? But like many have said, to maintain a program, that's the hard part.
Yes totally acceptable. In fact, just being above .500 is fine. No scratch that, just fielding a team is enough. I'm fucking stoned and I don't think a 5 loss season is acceptable for LSU.
Fuck football! When is LSU going to get a hockey team? Hire the right coach and we can be in the Frozen Four in no time.
