Here are five reasons that LSU should hire Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher.
After years of will-they-or-won’t-they drama, this season LSU had finally had enough, dismissing divisive head coach Les Miles. Miles was always a bit of an eccentric, and also something of an idiot-savant, bringing in elite talent at every position but quarterback, motivating his players while seemingly paying no attention to game situations, and eating grass, which isn’t necessarily good or bad but which must be mentioned in any article about Miles.
The Tigers, who were the No. 5 team in the country entering the season, held a disappointing 2-2 record when Miles was fired. After a 42-7 shellacking of the University of Missouri under interim coach Ed Orgeron, they face what is probably an impossible climb back into College Football Playoff consideration.
On a macro level, they also face a search for direction. Orgeron is likely not the answer long-term for the top job at LSU, and they’ll need a high-level replacement for Miles to continue the team’s presumed position among the nation’s elite. Reports have already leaked that LSU plans on reaching out to such big names as Urban Meyer and Nick Saban, but the real answer resides a further east an a bit further south: FSU’s head coach Jimbo Fisher. Here are five reasons why.
5. He has championship pedigree
Since the 2008 season, just four different coaches have won championships in what is now known as the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivison. Jimbo Fisher is one of them, alongside Alabama’s Nick Saban, Auburn’ Gene Chizik, and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer. Being a part of this short list brings with it some cache. The proof is in the pudding regarding bringing home the sport’s greatest prize, after all.
More importantly, Fisher won his title relatively recently, in 2013, meaning that many of the players he’ll be recruiting will remember watching that game more fondly than, say, LSU’s 21-0 drubbing under Miles at the hands of Saban’s Crimson Tide, or Miles’ home-game victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2008 Sugar Bowl.
Part of the reason Saban has had such easily sustainable success at Alabama is that players want to win and know that, under him, they will win at the highest level. Given his track record, Fisher has the potential to instill the same feeling of inevitable dominance in the Bayou as Saban has in Tuscaloosa.