LSU football suddenly needs a new offensive line coach

LSU football parted ways with offensive line coach James Cregg. Now the Tigers plan to begin a “national search” for a replacement.

The college football coaching carousel is wild, but it’s rare for that chaos to stretch into June.

LSU is bucking the trend by parting ways with offensive line coach James Cregg at an inopportune time.

The school announced their parting of ways with Cregg on Wednesday.

“[Head coach Ed Orgeron] will immediate begin a national search for Cregg’s replacement,” they said in a statement.

LSU football’s parting with James Cregg is a headscratcher

The timing is strange, to say the least. LSU finished spring camp on Apr. 18, so whoever they bring in to replace Cregg will be starting fresh with the offensive line with only fall camp to get acquainted with the personnel and schemes.

It’s an even bigger headscratcher on the recruiting front since the dead period just ended. The Tigers are planning to have three elite offensive line prospects on campus this weekend for official visits. Five-star Kelvin Banks headlines the group, including four-star Texas product Kam Dewberry and four-star Florida product Julian Amella. There will be no offensive line coach on staff to great them.

Cregg won the Joe Moore Award Award for LSU in 2019 by producing the best offensive line unit in college football, so it’s not like performance was the problem.

According to Brook Kubena of The Advocate, the school will owe Cregg $700,000 in salary if he is terminated without cause.

Before joining the Tigers in 2018, Cregg was an assistant offensive line coach with the Chargers. He worked in the same position with the Broncos when they won the Super Bowl in 2016. He had been USC’s offensive line coach under Lane Kiffin.

For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.