The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

According to the tie-breaker, if Alabama and UGA win out, (likely), and A&M loses 1 game (likely), it will be Alabama and Georgia in the CCG. 

Somebody get me Gerry DiNardo on the phone.  Time to Bring Back The Magic. 

According to The Athletic, it sounds like Brian Kelly might have had a chance to save his skin but either didn't read the room or didn't care.  They report that OC Joe Sloan's name was at the center of a heated exchange between AD Woodward and Kelly Saturday night after the game, which continued on into Sunday.  Woodward reportedly told Kelly to fire Sloan, and Kelly fired back that he wanted to make other staff moves that Woodward wasn't comfortable with.  Obviously we know how it ended.  If accurate, it's interesting to speculate that Kelly might have saved his job (for now, at least) by going along with the AD, because that's kind of the conclusion I'd draw from the facts offered. 

It's also interesting to me that Woodward singled out Sloan.  I mean, I'm on record here saying Sloan shouldn't be an OC at a place like LSU because he doesn't appear to have the chops for it.  But the other side of the coin is no offensive scheme, and no playcalling brilliance will save you or even look competent when you have an O-line like LSU's.  There is no X's and O's fix for that.  Add to that, the offense had actually been playing better over the last few games.  They weren't scoring a bunch more points, but they were moving the ball better, upping their TOP which should at least help the defense, and off the top of my head, were averaging about a TD more per game, as Nuss got healthier. 

The defense on the other hand....woof.  They just collapsed the last three games in the face of mobile QBs--which they did last year as well under DC Blake Baker. 

So it's interesting to target Sloan and not Baker.  Probably the whole staff needed an overhaul and you probably can't fire everybody mid-season.  Just makes me wonder why pick the OC in light of recent games.  Taking the season as a whole, the defense has obviously been the stronger unit and the offense has been a wreck.  But that doesn't seem to take recent trends into consideration. 

Maybe AD's are just idgits.  This one, in particular, is on the wrong side of his governor, with no current permanent university president buffering the two of them.  Which is another point.....whoever is appointed prez will be friendlier to the governor than to the AD.  Which may make AD Woodward worry his days are numbered, which may make him squirm and act erratically.  Who knows.  I'm just speculating. 

Didn't LSU and Florida get on the coaching carousel at the same time last time they were in the market?  We've got to stop meeting like this. 

So what's this business about settling for $20 mil?  Because of a morals code??

I really, really wish somebody would pay me tens of millions of dollars not to coach at LSU or A&M. 

I'd even happily seek employment (or maintain it, in my case), the salary of which would offset their burden of payments. 

Hell, I'll happily not coach at every school if they'd just pay me even a few thousand each. 

Getting the right coach is harder than fans think.  There's a lot to be said for "fit," but I don't know that you can necessarily predict it with any accuracy. 

I'm not one of those who says I knew Kelly wouldn't work out here, he was a poor fit, etc.  I will say I was concerned he might not be a good fit, but I was definitely hopeful about his tenure, and cautiously optimistic.  And, I even got more optimistic after his first season, when he so quickly rebuilt a decimated roster, won the west, and gave us one final win over Alabama.  I kind of, sort of, maybe, not really sure, maintained that optimism when the offense went nuclear the next year, but the historically awful defense gave us the same record, but without a West title.  During the third year is when I became convinced that he'd never lose less than 3 games and would be the first LSU coach in the last four not to win a NC. 

I don't necessarily disagree with his firing.  I'm also not convinced we're about to do better.  I'm not even sure how viable LSU is as a major power in the new $-mercenary world.  But even thinking in the old paradigm, it feels to me like we've entered the Texas-post-Mack phase, we just haven't realized it yet.  It may be a while and another few coaches before somebody really hits again, no matter how good it might seem at the beginning.