LSU Football: Rivals ranks 8 head coaches above Ed Orgeron

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron is one of five active FBS head coaches with a national championship.

But according to Rivals recruiting analyst Mike Farrell, Orgeron isn’t a top-five coach.

Farrell recently ranked his top 10 active coaches, and while he included Coach O, he was far underranked.

Unsurprisingly, Farrell has Alabama’s Nick Saban at No. 1. I don’t think there’s any debate there.

Clemson’s Dabo Swinney is at No. 2. Again, no debate there.

From there, the list could go several ways.

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron still isn’t getting much respect

Farrell has Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher at No. 3, with Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly rounding out the top five.

Orgeron is all the way down the list at No. 9, behind Ohio State’s Ryan Day, UNC’s Mack Brown, and Florida’s Dan Mullen.

There’s plenty of room for debate here. But I think you gotta have Orgeron in the top five. I can see the argument for Fisher at No.3 — he’s had decent success at two different programs. I don’t really see putting Orgeron behind Riley — a coach that Orgeron beat head-to-head in the College Football Playoff.

I also don’t see how Kelly, who has never won a national championship is above Orgeron.

And obviously, I disagree with Day being above Coach O (Day took over a great situation at Ohio State).

There’s an argument for Brown, considering the way he immediately improved North Carolina’s football program.

But there’s no argument for Mullen over Orgeron. I mean, a 3-5 LSU team just knocked off a No. 6 Florida team and Farrell wants to put Mullen over Orgeron?

That makes zero sense (plus Florida hasn’t been able to make the playoff under Mullen).

Maybe this will be the year that Orgeron finally gets some respect. But then again, if coaching the greatest college football team of all time in 2019 didn’t do the trick, I’m not sure what will.