Being Wrong, Hold The Turkey, Pass The Crow

[LSUDad]

Thankful for Being Wrong

Hold the turkey, I need to eat crow.

By Poseur@ATVSPoseur  Nov 27, 2019, 1:30pm CST

 

 

CEH is the f’n best  Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Yes, we play another football game this weekend, and it’s a big one. LSU fans and players circled the Texas A&M game on the calendar right about when the previous Texas A&M game ended a couple weeks ago. 

You don’t need me to tell you how angry you are about that game still, and trust me, however you feel, the players feel it a million times more. I mean, read this article from The Advocate this week and take in those player quotes. This is a team that is downright seething.

But I don’t want to talk about the Texas A&M game. That game is gonna go the way it’s gonna go, and let the chips fall where the may. No, what I want to talk about is this season in general and some of the men responsible for it.

This season, right now, might be the greatest season in LSU history. I generally hate our collective recency bias. Everything has to be the best thing or the worst thing ever, and I have to tell you… history is long. It is simply arrogant to dismiss wide swaths of history just because the pictures are grainy, or in black and white. 

But this season has been a gift. LSU isn’t just great, they are fun. Every game seems like an exercise in finding new ways to break the scoreboard. The team is not just racking up huge totals, they seems to specialize in clutch plays. Whenever the game gets close, that’s when they play their best.

Yes, the defense has struggled here and there, but it has effectively slammed the door in our tightest games (okay, except Texas). 

The defense held Auburn to six consecutive punts in the second half to turn a tie game at halftime into a 23-13 lead before Auburn scored a late TD to make the game look closer. LSU actually fell behind by a touchdown on the first drive of the second half against Florida, only for the defense to stiffen and not allow another point, as the offense scored 21 unanswered. The defense wobbled in the second half against InbredGumps, but it never fell, and InbredGumps never got the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, though they did score a long touchdown in the game’s final 90 seconds to make the score closer.

What I’m saying is, this season has been a delight and even the things we’re complaining about aren’t that big of a deal. Pass the turkey and some of Billy’s oyster dressing. Enjoy and give thanks for a great year.

The architect behind this remarkable team is Mr. Second Choice himself, Ed Orgeron.

When Ed Orgeron was hired, the decision was widely derided by many people as the unwanted result of an embarrassing search. And when I say many people, I mean me. I’ll quote myself a week after the hire:

This was a chance to do something bold, and instead we settled. This was a status quo hire right after the administration made a clear signal the status quo wasn’t good enough. If we were going to do this, why didn’t we spare ourselves the headache and just keep Les Miles? What’s the difference? This is an administration without a plan.

I don’t want to say that Coach O is a guaranteed failure. It’s more that I just don’t understand Alleva’s thinking at all. You can frame this however you want, and Ponamsky has proved himself to be a master at PR, but this hire is about minor tweaks, not a major blowup. I felt that once you fired Miles, you were on the path of major blowup and it was time to see it through. Alleva clearly felt that it was just time for minor tweaks and a major messaging overhaul. This is a sequel, not a reboot.

 

Here we are, three years later, and it doesn’t feel like a minor tweak. What I thought was a sequel was instead a complete reboot disguised a s a sequel. I was completely and utterly wrong (well, at least I didn’t say he was a guaranteed failure, so like… 90% wrong).

Though if I’m going to make fun of my old opinions, I should point out that I steadfastly stood by Ed after the Troy loss and the rats were jumping ship. The Troy loss turned out to be a great thing, as it gave Orgeron the courage to do things his way. Either he was going to succeed or fail, but he was going to do it his way, without regrets. It was a moment of clarity for the program.

However, the time is not to throw up our hands and give up. After all, we’re not Auburn fans. We don’t concede full seasons. I’ve got little sympathy for Tiger fans who have adopted a woe is us posture, spending their time researching Coach O’s buyout instead of looking at how this team can get better.

The current staff deserves a full-throated support right now. Barring a complete meltdown, a coach needs to time to implement his own vision for the program, and any transition will have its hiccups. Okay, I’d prefer if that hiccup wasn’t losing to a Sun Belt team, but Coach O is in the process of remaking the team in his own image, and we are nowhere near the finished product.

 

What a finished product, eh? Orgeron, after some early struggles, has delivered on every promise. The offense is now a monster. LSU is competing for titles. We have somehow stepped up our recruiting from great to “oh my God” levels. 

And he did it by being true to Louisiana and not giving a damn what any other person said. He’s made mistakes, but unlike a lot of coaches, he learned from them. He put Steve Ensminger back in charge of the offense, over the objections of nearly every person on the internet, and it has worked out like gangbusters.

Orgeron has shoved it in the face of every person who doubted the hire, and I could not be more thrilled. This thing could have spiraled out of control after the Troy loss, and instead he treated that as the spot where you build the foundation. Once you get to the lowest point, stop digging.

If any player symbolizes the Ed Orgeron era so far, it is Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Similarly dismissed and derided, Clyde was supposed to be a place-holder back until the vaunted five star freshmen took the job away from him. It was simply inevitable, as you can’t beat talent.

But a funny thing happened on the way to inevitability. Clyde Edwards-Helaire became the second best player on the team, behind only the potential Heisman winner and Best Quarterback in LSU History, Joe Burrow. He got stronger as the year went on, only reaching the 100-yard mark once in his first five games (106 against Vandy). 

Since then, he has been the veritable rock of the LSU offense. His tough running and refusal to go down was symbolic of the LSU effort and will to win against Alabama. Counted out by just about everyone, even LSU fans, CEH has blossomed into another great LSU running back, keeping the 1000-yard rusher tradition alive.

We doubted them. OK, I doubted them. And they have beautifully and spectacularly proved me wrong. I can’t think of anything I’m more thankful for in regards to LSU football. Ed Orgeron and Clyde Edwards-Helairedidn’t just silence their critics, they turned them into believers.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire is my favorite LSU player ever. I cannot thank him enough for this season. Please keep proving me wrong.

[houtiger]

That is the best damned article about LSU football that I have read in the last 40 years!!!  Fantastic, and thanks for posting that.

On O, my point has been that you are not trapped by your past if you can learn from it, and Ed talked like he had learned from it.  He seems like he has more compassion than he did at Ole Piss.  Maybe he realized how flawed he was and had to forgive himself for mistakes he made, and that makes a person more understanding of the mistakes of others.  He has his rules and enforces them on the team (coaches decisions and dismissing players when necessary), but I think he can tell a player honestly that he wishes he did not have to carry out that discipline, he can do it without stomping on a man.  It also has to help him recruit, and he looks like he has the recruiting boat skimming on top of the water, flying along, not plodding along.  O has to be living the dream, and I am happy for him and Louisiana.

Clyde, what can I say.  I thought the freshmen would pass him by mid-season.  First half of the season, he was solid.  Second half of the season, he has improved from solid to outstanding.  It could be improvement in the o-line, but I see Clyde doing things on his own that are great.  The o-line does not make spin moves just at the right time, or carry two or three tacklers for 5 yards.  But something changed the second half of the season, Clyde got in the groove.  Play calling?  But Clyde is the only person that can make a jump cut or spin, that's Clyde.  And he catches better than he ever has, I guess what you practice is what you become, and it looks like he has been working on catching.  That man has a big heart, hats off to Clyde.

Clearly this has been a season to enjoy, and I have.  I'm amazed at the offense, and concerned about the defense.  I don't expect us to win the natty, but it is possible if we can take care of business.  Everyone is good from here on out.

[paducahmichael]

This line sums up the season for me.

Quote

But this season has been a gift. LSU isn’t just great, they are fun. 

 

[LSUDad]

Guilbeau might need a plate also? 
 

Guilbeau: Coach O hire is an embarrassment

Close your eyes and imagine it is a year ago when then-LSU coach Les Miles was about to be fired, and someone tells you that the next coach is going to be LSU defensive line coach Ed Orgeron.

LSU

 

 

Author: WWL Staff

Published:12:19 PM CST November 26, 2016

Updated: 3:36 PM CST November 26, 2016

BATON ROUGE – Close your eyes and imagine it is a year ago when then-LSU coach Les Miles was about to be fired, and someone tells you that the next coach is going to be LSU defensive line coach Ed Orgeron.

Now, open your eyes.

Orgeron - a career journeyman coach, a failed head coach and a somewhat successful short term head coach at USC and LSU – is LSU’s next football coach.

“I’m the search,” LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said two months ago after firing Miles.

“I’m worried,” I said.

Well, I’m still worried.

Alleva first started looking for a new head football coach more than a year ago and started thinking about looking for a new head football coach when he came here in 2008. And this is it?

This is an embarrassment.

Texas’ search and hire lasted a few days, and it’s going to get the coach LSU has been thinking about maybe hiring for two months – Houston’s Tom Herman, a bright rising star at 41.

Herman could have been LSU’s first true offensive head coach hire in history. Instead, it hired a defensive line coach whose new offense got shut out against Alabama, which allowed an average of 36 points to Ole Piss and Arkansas this season, and managed three points through more than a dozen goal-line plays in a 16-10 loss to Florida two weeks ago.

According to Kirk Bohls, an extremely credible reporter who covers Texas for the Austin American-Statesman, Herman’s agent Trace Armstrong told LSU it could hire Herman for $6 million. “And LSU said no,” Armstrong said, according to Bohls.

Maybe, that’s not true. Herman, who coached at four Texas colleges (Texas as a graduate assistant, Sam Houston State, Texas State and Rice) before becoming Houston’s head coach two years ago, was probably going to Texas no matter what LSU offered. But LSU should have offered the $6 million or $7 million.

And LSU should have offered Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher $8 million. He may still have stayed, but you have to get the money out there. You have to try.

But LSU did not max out. Instead, in the end, it took a Black Friday approach to this search and ended up with a bargain, but this could be a nightmare in the long run.

Orgeron’s yearly salary will be about $3.5 million, which means LSU will save $1 million the coaching swap between Orgeron and Miles. And Orgeron can throw a large salary at Alabama offensive coordinator and old USC buddy Lane Kiffin, who makes $1.4 million at Alabama. LSU now has a lot of money left over. It does not owe Orgeron a buyout.

LSU made a similar bargain move when it hired Oklahoma State coach Les Miles after the 2004 season. It saved a $1 million in the Nick Saban for Miles swap when Saban left for the Miami Dolphins.

So, that makes 17 years since LSU boldly set the market for a new football coach as it did when it hired Saban from Michigan State in 1999 for $1.2 million. During the negotiations, then-LSU athletic director Joe Dean and others with LSU balked at the idea of paying so much for a coach.

And then-chancellor Mark Emmert stepped in and stopped the quibbling between Saban’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, and LSU. “Pay him what he wants.”

And it was done. Emmert wasn’t looking for a bargain. He was shopping at Neiman Marcus, and he got value over a long period of time because he didn’t settle for journeyman defensive assistant coach Phil Bennett, who could have been hired at bargain prices. He didn’t settle for defensive coordinator Mike Archer as Dean did after the 1986 season and found himself looking for a new coach just four years later … and another just four years later … and another just five years later.

Instead, Emmert’s shot at the moon launched LSU’s football future from bad and average and very good every now and then over the previous quarter century to sustained greatness for more than the next decade. There were national championships in the 2003 and 2007 seasons after none since 1958 and a national championship game appearance at 13-0 in the 2011 season. There were Southeastern Conference titles in 2001, ’03, ’07 and ’11 after none since 1988.

LSU was never greater for longer than in that span because Emmert set the market. He didn’t try to get close to setting the market as Alleva just did, which was $6 million for Herman and $7 million for Fisher.

Maybe Alleva would not have gotten either for even those prices, but he should have tried harder and higher. 

That’s what one has to do to be great. One doesn’t settle.

One also interviews a few other sitting head coaches out there and gets one. My goodness, Alleva fired Miles on Sept. 24 and really started looking around late last year, and he couldn’t find a bright, 40ish, rising coach out there other than Fisher and Herman? Alleva’s template for this hire resembles that of his Johnny Jones hire in basketball.

Alleva’s “search” for a football coach in the end didn’t leave Nicholson Drive. It didn’t even make it to Cyber Monday.

How far has LSU fallen? To a career journeyman coach, a failed head coach and a somewhat successful short term head coach twice. Orgeron may work out. He is talented. LSU has looked very good through most of his 5-2 run, but the wins were over unranked teams and the losses were to ranked teams. Still, he may be the ultimate diamond with the rough voice. He definitely could work out in the short term. But what happens after defensive coordinator Dave Aranda and Kiffin – if O gets him – move on to head coaching jobs? What happens long term?

I hope he wins, because he is a great person. But I would not have hired him.

Remember this, Orgeron is the only Ole Piss head coach out of six including him – three before him from 1983 to 2005 and two after him following 2007 – who did not have at least one winning season through three or more years on the job. Those five coaches, by the way, had 20 winning seasons in 30 years. Orgeron lost all three seasons, going 10-25 overall and 3-21 in the SEC, without probation. That was a decade ago, but that is still LSU’s new head coach. 

And it’s not a dream.

[Herb]

Gilbeau...nuff said.

[LSUDad]

Remember his promise ?
Well here it is ......

LSU 12-0... on to the SEC Championship Game vs. Georgia.

February of 2017...
“ I am honored to be the head coach of the LSU Tigers. I am proud to be a Cajun from the Bayou. I will never run away from my heritage. That part stays with me forever.
And I know you folks here got my back.
I’m going to get some negative comments. I’m not everyone’s first, second or third choice, but I got the job and I’m going to work day and night to get this program back to the top. 
Some of the naysayers will laugh about this, but in a very short period of time LSU will be back in the SEC Championship Game and in the Final Four series for the national championship.  I promise you that..”
Coach O Night.. February of 2017..

[Hatchertiger]

There are plenty of LSU fans who need to eat some crow.

[Herb]

I publically acknowledged mine.

Feel free to use that thread as a "me too" movement, LSU fan style.