LSU Football: Ed Orgeron should make a Nick Saban-like move this offseason
By Zach Ragan
LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron should make a Nick Saban-like move this offseason.
LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron is proving to be one of the best in the business when it comes to making great coaching staff hires.
Bringing in Joe Brady to serve as the passing game coordinator in 2019 was an under-the-radar move that proved to be wildly successful (just look at LSU’s historic 2019 offense).
Orgeron then turned heads by hiring Bo Pelini to serve as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator (replacing Dave Aranda, who left Baton Rouge to become the head coach at Baylor).
There’s another sly move that Orgeron should make this offseason to make LSU a better team in 2021.
LSU football needs to hire high profile “analyst”
A popular trend in college football has emerged over the last several years. A lot of coaches who are fired are choosing to “reset” by joining a coaching staff as an analyst.
We’ve seen it with former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones (who serves as an analyst at Alabama) and former USC head coach Steve Sarkisian (who joined Alabama’s staff as an analyst before working his way to the offensive coordinator position). Former Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chip Long is now serving as an analyst at Tennessee after he couldn’t get along with Brian Kelly on the Irish staff.
I think it’s time that LSU makes a similar move.
Orgeron should find a way to bring Derek Mason, who was just fired as the Vanderbilt Commodores head coach this past weekend, onto LSU’s staff as an analyst.
Mason is a bright guy. He’s defensive minded and has a fiery personality (just like Pelini), but he has a reputation as just an overall good dude (his farewell message to Vandy fans after getting fired is as classy as it gets).
Bright spot for LSU in loss to Aggies. dark. Next
I could see Mason thriving in an off-the-field role at LSU, while he tries to decide what’s next for his career. Moves like this don’t generate a lot of headlines, but they can end up paying huge dividends behind the scenes.
Orgeron has never worked with Mason before, but this is still a move I think the Tigers should try to make this offseason.