i'm not a fan of this hire in any way. But it's LSU so i will still be there supporting the team and rooting like hell for him to prove me wrong. and Alleva needs to be fired immediately for this "search". had 12 months to prepare for this and he had 2 candidates. then pussed out of talks with one candidate who had the audacity to want to view his options before making a decision.
According to Alleva's own words, neither coach warranted an official offer. That to me is the most amazing thing I heard about the whole process. You literally have to sweet talk, beg, sleep on their doorstep, if necessary, to get the guy you want to run your program for the next decade.
If you figure out your beautiful girlfriend is playing you like a fiddle is it smart to keep her just because she's beautiful? Alleva was pretty blunt in his statements about the way Herman and his agent handled things. Herman was my first choice since last year, but given what we know so far it looks like Alleva was right to tell him to fk off.
I really don't get the Alleva hate. I think he's done a competent job as AD. The Trent Johnson and Nikki Caldwell hires looked good at the time. Yeah, he gave in to local pressure and hired JJ but he would be getting skewered if he hadn't hired Jones and the guy he did hire didn't pan out. He tried to fire Miles last year and almost had Fisher on the hook before Jindal and F King botched the deal. He gave Miles a very short leash this year and fired him when it was evident Miles would not change, as he should have. He targeted two top notch coaches. I don't fault him for not offering a 10 year contract to Fisher or letting Sexton crush his balls. And if the story is correct that he had a handshake agreement with Herman at six mil and then Herman balked when UT fired Strong, I don't blame him for walking away and not getting into a bidding war. Herman blew it. I also think he handled the UF situation as well as can be expected. I'm not thrilled with this hire but I'm on board and optimistic. I expect top 3 recruiting classes and the Tigers will roll. O is capable of getting us back into the conversation and I'm with him until he fails to deliver.
I'm also very suspicious this has Alexander's fingerprints all over it. Alleva is a shitty negotiator who panics at the first sign of a third party with comparable resources making counter-offers. And it IS arguable whether Herman or Jimbo were worth the reported amounts of money they demanded. But this "search" was a farce. I don't buy the "all or nothing" argument that these two were the only qualified HC's on the market that we could've reached out to. And if there was a Plan B, what the hell was the rush to sign Orgeron? But it's also clear from reports last year at this time that Alexander is the anti-Emmert in terms of how he sees the role of the AD. From his perspective he got everything he wanted. He got to ride the wave of pro-Orgeron coonass parochialism ("BeBe one of us, cher, and the LOVES LSU), and use it as cover to get what he always wanted: a replacement HC on the cheap.
This whole thing smells like Alexander has Alleva on a serious budget. If that's the case, it's not all on your AD, but if that is the case, the AD should have had a few more plan A prospects in the bullpen. Is that fair?
this isn't a girlfriend thing. this is hiring a guy for a job. i've hired people, and i've been hired by people. myself and the people i've hired all looked at all of their options before making their decisions. would you stop recruiting a 5* RB because he wanted to visit Alabama and settle on a 2* punter instead because that guy wants only LSU?
