Although some SEC coaches, including Bret Bielema, have said that LSU should keep Ed Orgeron as the head coach, the school should tap Tom Herman to lead the program.
Please note that this is not a knock on Coach O. He did a fantastic job taking over at USC after the school fired Lane Kiffin, guiding the Trojans to a 6-2 record. He did an even better job at LSU this season, injecting life into a Tiger offense that has struggled constantly for the last five years.
With that said, Saturday night’s contest proved that he’s not the right guy for the job. Sure, Alabama deserves a ton of credit for playing a great game defensively. But, the LSU offense played much more conservatively against the Tide than it did in its previous two SEC games under Orgeron, in which the Tigers averaged 574.5 yards per game and 7.87 yards per play.
While there’s nothing wrong with trying to avoid mistakes against a team that will punish you for making them, that’s not what LSU needs right now. If the Tigers are going to compete for a national championship year in and year out, they need to hire a coach that will force opposing defenses to adjust rather than simply taking what the defense gives you. It should bring in someone who will take calculated risks, which are a necessary evil against an Alabama defense that’s allowing a mere 4.06 yards per play.
Although there are a number of outstanding coaches that would fit this description, I would aggressively pursue Houston’s Tom Herman if I were LSU. Yes, his stock has fallen a little bit after the Cougars suffered a couple of shocking losses in conference play, but he’s done an outstanding job as a head coach. In his two seasons at Houston, he’s compiled a 20-3 record that includes wins over Florida State and Oklahoma. In addition, his offense at Ohio State had no trouble moving the ball against Alabama in the College Football Playoff, scoring 42 points and racking up 537 yards. The Buckeye offense did such a great job in that contest that Nick Saban actually brought in Herman as a consultant to figure out what went wrong.
If that doesn’t sound like the best person to help LSU’s program become a perennial national championship contender, I don’t know what does.
