LSU Football: Rivals missed the mark with their ranking of Ed Orgeron

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron isn’t ranked quite as high as he should be in a recent list from Rivals.

Rivals recruiting director Mike Farrell recently ranked the best coachings hires since 2008 and he somehow doesn’t have LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron at No. 1.

Farrell’s top 10 is headlined by Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley. He has Coach O at No. 2 on his list.

The reason for putting Riley ahead of Orgeron?

According to Farrell, it’s Riley’s consistency and ability to produce NFL talent that has him at No. 1.

I’m sorry, what?

Did Farrell completely miss the 2019 season (and the 14 LSU players selected in the 2020 NFL Draft)?

LSU football’s Ed Orgeron is undoubtedly the best hire since 2008

There’s no doubt that Riley has been consistent at Oklahoma.

The Sooners are 36-6 in three years under Riley. And they’ve finished in the top 10 in each of those three seasons.

Definitely impressive. And definitely worthy of being in the top two.

But it’s not quite worthy of being at No. 1…..not when Coach O is in the mix.

Orgeron is 40-9 in three-plus years at LSU (40-9 in the SEC is more impressive than 36-6 in the Big 12). He’s 3-1 in bowl games (Riley is 0-3). And he just led the Tigers to a 15-0 season and a national championship (arguably the greatest season in college football history).

I mean, isn’t the goal in college football to win a national championship?

Coach O has accomplished that feat. Riley hasn’t. It’s that simple.

But if you need more reasons why Orgeron should be higher on this list than Riley, I have them.

Orgeron took over at LSU in the middle of the 2016 season after Les Miles was fired (after a 2-2 start to the season). Coach O had to change the culture in Baton Rouge. He had to change the way the program operated.

Riley, however, took over a team that was already a national championship contender.

Oklahoma finished 11-2 in 2016 under Bob Stoops. The Sooners were the No. 5 ranked team in the nation when Riley took the helm. He didn’t have to build anything. All Riley had to do was continue in Stoops’ footsteps.

That’s not to discount Riley as a head coach. We’ve seen plenty of situations where a coach takes over a great situation and fails (just ask Ray Goff about his time at Georgia when he took over for Vince Dooley).

But Coach O didn’t have that same fortune. He had to work a lot harder than Riley to get LSU to the College Football Playoff.

And when he got there, Orgeron didn’t bow out in the semifinals as Riley has for the last three years.

Coach O belongs at the top of this list. It’s not even close.