Only the Board of Supervisors can approve the coach. The AD gets to recommend a coach to the Board of Supervisors. Sometimes an active Chancellor can order the AD to offer a coach. Emmert told a reluctant Joe Dean in no uncertain terms that he was going to offer the job to Nick Saban or be replaced by Skip early. Sometimes the BoS is involved deeply, as in replacing Charlie McClendon as head coach and bringing back Paul Dietzel as AD. Sometimes the governor gets involved. Alleva can choose just about any women's softball coach he wants, but hiring the head football coach at LSU has to pass political muster on several levels.
We've recruited much too well to drop off that consistently, one would think. The much bigger issue is the quality of head coaches in this league, and specifically the SEC West. There is not a dud in the bunch. In fact, you could easily rank Les Miles last in this division of head coaches. Arkansas hasn't hit their stride but you can see Bielema ball coming and winning in bunches. He is still a recruiting class or two from getting his type players in there. Mullen has finally gotten over the hump and who knows what that means for the future. Freeze is simply a solid head coach (at a minimum). Sumlin and Malzahn are offensive geniuses and will forever field a competitive team you're going to have to outscore. Saban is Saban. Gone are the days of getting to beat up on idiots like Houston Nutt, Gene Chizik, etc.
Well, the Genius Sumlin got his ass handed to him by Mississippi State on Saturday. Score very similar to ours with a couple of late garbage touchdowns.