LSU Football: The danger of hiring Billy Napier to replace Ed Orgeron

One of the popular names among LSU football fans to replace Ed Orgeron in Baton Rouge is Louisiana Ragin Cajuns head coach Billy Napier.

(Note: LSU hasn’t fired Orgeron yet, but that move seems inevitable at this point for a myriad of reasons.)

Napier has been the head coach at Louisiana since 2018. He’s 33-12 so far and he’s 15-2 since the start of the 2020 season.

There’s no doubt that Napier, who has served as an assistant coach under Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney, can coach.

But is he the right guy for LSU?

The danger of LSU football hiring Billy Napier

Napier has done a great job at Louisiana. And he has a nice resumé, with stints at Alabama, Clemson, and Arizona State.

But how do we know he can handle being a Power-5 coach? Especially at LSU, a place where there’s a ton of pressure to win.

I’m not saying Napier wouldn’t be a good hire, but I don’t think it’s a sure thing like a lot of folks think.

Anytime a coach is hired that hasn’t coached at the Power-5 level, it’s a massive gamble.

Just look at Scott Frost.

He was one of the hottest names in the country in 2017 after taking UCF from winless to undefeated in two years.

Frost was hired as the head coach at Nebraska — his alma mater — after the 2017 season.

And it hasn’t gone very well.

Frost is 15-24 since taking over at Nebraska. That’s not what anyone expected from Frost after he was wildly successful at UCF.

How do we know Napier wouldn’t turn out like Frost?

The truth is that there’s no way to know for sure. It’s a total gamble.

Maybe Napier is the best coach for LSU. Unfortunately, we just can’t know whether that’s the case or not right now.