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Report reveals LSU football’s No. 1 coaching target to replace Ed Orgeron

By Alicia de Artola

Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin (left) and LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron (right) shake hands after a game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin (left) and LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron (right) shake hands after a game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports /
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LSU football could swing for the fences if Pete Thamel is right about Scott Woodward’s No. 1 target for the open coaching job.

The biggest uncertainty in the SEC this fall might not be about who will win the conference or make it into the playoff. It’s about who LSU will choose to succeed Ed Orgeron when he departs at the end of the season.

Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports dropped some nuggets in his latest coaching carousel update.

Thamel called the LSU job “the most attractive on the market,” which should give them their pick of available candidates.

The tricky part is establishing who is available in reality because, according to Thamel, athletic director Scott Woodward has his eyes set on a very big fish.

Jimbo Fisher is LSU football’s top coaching target

“Until another coach is walked to the podium at the news conference by athletic director Scott Woodward, it’s safe to project Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher as the target here,” Thamel wrote. “That’s always been Woodward’s dream candidate, and his history of paying historic amounts for Fisher is the best empirical evidence of that desire.”

Complicating matters is the fact that Fisher just signed an absolutely enormous extension meant to keep him in College Station for the next decade. That deal came along with a massive buyout, the likes of which college football has never seen.

Woodward may want to reunite with Fisher, but it won’t be easy to make that happen.

If LSU can’t get Fisher, Thamel proposed other names like James Franklin of Penn State, Luke Fickell of Cincinnati, Dave Aranda of Baylor, Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss and Mel Tucker of Michigan State.

It’s worth noting that the Spartans are reportedly working on an extension for Tucker to make him as difficult to steal away as Fisher.

LSU’s biggest competition in the hiring market might be the current employers of their favored targets more than other schools looking for a new coach as well.

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