By Hunt Palmer
Nothing is certain in a coaching search.
The search for stability should be among the pillars of LSU’s version between now and whenever that next coach takes the podium in a purple tie and LSU lapel pin.
LSU lost the stability I’m referencing the day Nick Saban packed his bags for South Beach on Christmas Day of 2004. It’s time to try to get it back.
No, I’m not referencing the near certainty of multiple national championships. Saban created that at Alabama, and his run there is not replicable. The stability I’m alluding to comes on one side of the football thanks to a head coach who makes that part of the program his own. For Saban, it’s the defense.
LSU’s last three coaches have reached the pinnacle of the sport.
Les Miles won a national title and played for another. Ed Orgeron led the greatest team in the sport’s history. Brian Kelly won more games than anyone at the most tradition-rich program in college football. He’s a future Hall of Famer.
All three relied heavily on coordinators on both sides of the ball. When a great one left, instability followed, and it often led to an implosion.
Miles’s offense was great at times with Jimbo Fisher, Gary Crowton and Greg Studrawa. It face-planted with Cam Cameron. His defenses were among college football’s best with Bo Pelini and Dave Aranda at the helm. Bradley Dale Peveto and Doug Mallory couldn’t stop a toddler on ice skates.
Orgeron retained Aranda and won a title. Pelini’s second tenure was a failure, and Daronte Jones was a desperation hire that hasn’t called a defense since leaving Baton Rouge. On offense, he and Matt Canada feuded. Steve Ensminger and Joe Brady made magic, and Jake Peetz was brought in because knew someone who knew Brady. The offense crashed and burned.
Kelly’s Mike Denbrock offense led the nation. The Joe Sloan offense got him fired. The Denbrock offense made history but didn’t win a title because the Matt House defense made history at the same time…for all the wrong reasons. Blake Baker steadied that as the offense sank.
You get the picture.
Miles, Kelly and Orgeron all took the job without a side of the ball they could create stability with. Some of the best teams and programs in the country have a head coach who can essentially guarantee a result year in and year out.
That’s the stability LSU should be looking for.
Ryan Day’s Ohio State offense has ranked in the top 12 in the country in yards per game seven of nine years. The Buckeyes have finished outside the top 18 once.
Kirby Smart’s defense ranked in the top 16 in the country seven straight years from 2017 to 2023. Five of those years it was top six. It’s dropped off the last two…to 23rd and 24th.
Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss offense has finished in the top eight in the country four of five years. The fifth? Thirteenth.
Mike Elko has the best third down defense in the country this season at Texas A&M. His last four defenses as a coordinator for Jimbo Fisher in College Station ranked 13th, 23rd, 15th and 9th in America on that all-important down. It’s his specialty. It shows up every year.
You don’t even have to look to the very top of the sport to find other examples.
Josh Huepel has elevated Tennessee, but he hasn’t won much of substance. Still, his offense is going to be great every year. The Volunteers have led the SEC in rushing twice (2024, 2023) and finished third once (2021) in his five seasons. The other two seasons Tennessee has led the SEC in passing. Four of five years the Vols have led the SEC in either rushing or passing. It’s stable.
Even further down the pecking order, look at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs have lost 16 of 17 SEC games. Prior to Dan Mullen, Sylvester Croom went 10-30 in league games. The lows in Starkville are really low.
Dan Mullen and Mike Leach avoided those lows in part by assuring their side of the ball was taken care of. Mullen went 33-39 in SEC games and won at least three SEC games in eight of nine years. His UNLV offense is 14th national in scoring this year. Leach was 11-14 in the SEC and was 4-4 in both non-Covid years.
That range of coaches spans the from elite of the sport to a perennial SEC cellar dweller. The common thread is a head coach with an expertise that maintains a level of excellence on one side of the ball. That decreases program volatility by 50%.
It’s easier said than done. Hugh Freeze and Billy Napier couldn’t build offenses at their respective SEC spots. Aranda’s Baylor defenses have been in the bottom half of the Big 12 for three years.
College head coaches have dozens of responsibilities.
They have to hire a staff, recruit the high school players, recruit the portal prospects, re-recruit the current roster, show face with boosters, run camps, meet the media, manage NIL budgets, advise scheduling, plan practice, monitor academic progress, oversee the weight program. It never ends.
LSU has a personnel department in place to help. The finances are there to hire a competent staff. The recruiting base is fertile. The resources are available.
Verge Ausberry and his committee have a lot to sell. The pitch needs to be to someone who can firmly solidify one side of the ball.
It’s a tad ironic considering the circus of the last three weeks, but stability needs to be the priority.
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