Good morning gents. I know I haven't been very visible on the boards lately but between the election - you guys know how politically active I am - and the holidays I haven't really had the time to do much more than look in on you.
Now that the coaching search is done, I find I'm left with some mixed feelings. Like many, CEO wasn't my first choice or my second choice but once Fisher and Herman took themselves off of the board, there is literally no one in the country I would have rather had fill that position. I think Herman to Texas was the worst kept secret in college football all season long and once Fisher stuck to his demand for an 8 or 10 year contract, depending on what source you use (and that's something I don't think LSU should be forced to do for anyone) the decision kind of made itself. I don't pretend to know the inner workings of what happened more than that.
I can't look at CEO as a consolation prize - the man loves LSU with all his heart, he has proven himself as a recruiter and the boosters, fans and players all love him. What I would consider his deficiencies in prior jobs (i.e. Ole Miss) he seems to have learned from greatly. He has exhibited two traits that Miles was most often called down for - his willingness to let his quality assistants do their job and his openess to change when needed. He learns from his mistakes and, thus far it seems, doesn't repeat them. By keeping him, we retain the majority of that excellent staff and keep our recruiting class intact. If we get the right OC, and I have reason to think that we will, this will likely turn out to be an exceptional hire.
I felt that, under CEO, the team came out and played like gangbusters in all but one game this season. Despite mounting injuries and all of the tumoil surrounding the program, we repeatedly set offensive records and fielded the best defense I've seen at LSU in some time. The night we played the Tide I don't think anyone in the country beats us other than Alabama and even they needed a little help to do it. Then we turned around and avoided the traditional post-Bama let-down which was very encouraging. I'm not going to lie though, that Florida game hurt. To lose the way we did with the Sugar Bowl on the line to that team and to that jack-ass of a coach... four trips inside the 10 and come away with three points, giving up a 98 yard TD pass... but as upset as I was over that loss, I can't really blame CEO fully for our fumbling inside the 10, for our fumbling the snap on a FG attempt, for our blowing a coverage on the long pass play... sometimes those things happen, sometimes those games happen, but it did put a bad taste in my mouth for a while regardless.
The real reason for my mixed feelings is that the choice seems to rob of us of our 'new beginning'. We have been a divided fanbase for a decade now. There were those among us who were against the Miles hire from the beginning, who never really allowed him a chance to win them over. Lines were drawn. People became emotionally invested in his success or in his failure, in being 'right' about him and proving the other side 'wrong'. That never-ending debate stole a lot of joy out of LSU football for me and the biggest relief that I felt when Miles was let go was that we would finally be rid of that division, at least for a while. Except that we're not. In many ways people have already made their minds up about CEO and for those that are disappointed in the choice we may be in for another 3, 5 or 10 years of marginalizing his victories and exaggerating his defeats, another period of people drawing lines in the sand and enjoying LSU football less, either because they didn't like the coaching choice from the beginning or because the guy next to them didn't. I truly hope that that's not the case but I suspect that CEO is going to have much less of a honeymoon period than Fisher or Herman would have - it was said to me before the hire that with our schedule next year 8-4 would be a miracle no matter who our coach was. I'm naturally a little more optimistic than that but I would hope that considering the mass exodus of talent into the NFL we're going to see and that brutal schedule next season, we are as patient with Orgeron as we would have been with either of the other two candidates.
Either way the decision is made and Alleva will live or die with it. I'm disappointed that we didn't get Herman or Fisher, but I understand why that happened. I'm glad we didn't start grabbing blindly for someone else when the obvious option was right here in front of us. The decision is made, all that's left for us is to get behind this coach and lend him and his players our full-throated support - at this point as fans that is absolutely the ONLY thing we can do to continue to help this team be successful.
Should be a great recruiting class this year.
Now that the coaching search is done, I find I'm left with some mixed feelings. Like many, CEO wasn't my first choice or my second choice but once Fisher and Herman took themselves off of the board, there is literally no one in the country I would have rather had fill that position. I think Herman to Texas was the worst kept secret in college football all season long and once Fisher stuck to his demand for an 8 or 10 year contract, depending on what source you use (and that's something I don't think LSU should be forced to do for anyone) the decision kind of made itself. I don't pretend to know the inner workings of what happened more than that.
I can't look at CEO as a consolation prize - the man loves LSU with all his heart, he has proven himself as a recruiter and the boosters, fans and players all love him. What I would consider his deficiencies in prior jobs (i.e. Ole Miss) he seems to have learned from greatly. He has exhibited two traits that Miles was most often called down for - his willingness to let his quality assistants do their job and his openess to change when needed. He learns from his mistakes and, thus far it seems, doesn't repeat them. By keeping him, we retain the majority of that excellent staff and keep our recruiting class intact. If we get the right OC, and I have reason to think that we will, this will likely turn out to be an exceptional hire.
I felt that, under CEO, the team came out and played like gangbusters in all but one game this season. Despite mounting injuries and all of the tumoil surrounding the program, we repeatedly set offensive records and fielded the best defense I've seen at LSU in some time. The night we played the Tide I don't think anyone in the country beats us other than Alabama and even they needed a little help to do it. Then we turned around and avoided the traditional post-Bama let-down which was very encouraging. I'm not going to lie though, that Florida game hurt. To lose the way we did with the Sugar Bowl on the line to that team and to that jack-ass of a coach... four trips inside the 10 and come away with three points, giving up a 98 yard TD pass... but as upset as I was over that loss, I can't really blame CEO fully for our fumbling inside the 10, for our fumbling the snap on a FG attempt, for our blowing a coverage on the long pass play... sometimes those things happen, sometimes those games happen, but it did put a bad taste in my mouth for a while regardless.
The real reason for my mixed feelings is that the choice seems to rob of us of our 'new beginning'. We have been a divided fanbase for a decade now. There were those among us who were against the Miles hire from the beginning, who never really allowed him a chance to win them over. Lines were drawn. People became emotionally invested in his success or in his failure, in being 'right' about him and proving the other side 'wrong'. That never-ending debate stole a lot of joy out of LSU football for me and the biggest relief that I felt when Miles was let go was that we would finally be rid of that division, at least for a while. Except that we're not. In many ways people have already made their minds up about CEO and for those that are disappointed in the choice we may be in for another 3, 5 or 10 years of marginalizing his victories and exaggerating his defeats, another period of people drawing lines in the sand and enjoying LSU football less, either because they didn't like the coaching choice from the beginning or because the guy next to them didn't. I truly hope that that's not the case but I suspect that CEO is going to have much less of a honeymoon period than Fisher or Herman would have - it was said to me before the hire that with our schedule next year 8-4 would be a miracle no matter who our coach was. I'm naturally a little more optimistic than that but I would hope that considering the mass exodus of talent into the NFL we're going to see and that brutal schedule next season, we are as patient with Orgeron as we would have been with either of the other two candidates.
Either way the decision is made and Alleva will live or die with it. I'm disappointed that we didn't get Herman or Fisher, but I understand why that happened. I'm glad we didn't start grabbing blindly for someone else when the obvious option was right here in front of us. The decision is made, all that's left for us is to get behind this coach and lend him and his players our full-throated support - at this point as fans that is absolutely the ONLY thing we can do to continue to help this team be successful.
Should be a great recruiting class this year.
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