LSU Football: Tigers appear to have their top 2 candidates to replace Ed Orgeron

LSU football is looking for a new head coach after parting ways with Ed Orgeron last month.

Orgeron is remaining the head coach through the end of the season, but that hasn’t stopped Tigers athletic director Scott Woodward from starting his search for a new head coach.

Woodward is undoubtedly vetting various candidates, while likely also working back channels to gauge interest from potential candidates.

We probably won’t know who LSU’s next head coach will be until the end of November, though it appears that the Tigers have two candidates that are at the top of their list.

LSU Football’s top two candidates to replace Ed Orgeron

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman is the gold standard when it comes to college football coaching searches.

Feldman has a plethora of connections in the world of college football, so it’s always worth listening to what he has to say (especially when it comes to coaching searches).

The latest information from Feldman, which he shared on Fox Sports’ “Breaking the Huddle” podcast, indicates that LSU has two top candidates in mind to replace Orgeron.

The top candidate is still Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, who was hired in College Station by Woodward (before he left the Aggies to return to his alma mater in Baton Rouge).

If Woodward can’t convince Fisher to return to LSU (where Fisher was the program’s offensive coordinator from 2000-2006), then the next candidate on the list is Michigan State’s Mel Tucker.

Tucker has led Michigan State to an 8-0 and a No. 3 ranking in the initial College Football Playoff rankings.

Here’s what Feldman had to say on the podcast:

"“From what I’m hearing from people around LSU is that Scott Woodward is not giving up easily. And he feels like he may be able to pull Jimbo Fisher again even though the A&M people are like ‘no, that’s not happening.’ So we’ll see how that plays out.”If Fisher stays in College Station, though, Feldman says Mel Tucker could be the guy in Baton Rouge:“Mel Tucker is a guy that has obviously had a terrific year and done a really good job turning around Michigan State,” Feldman continued. “He’s a former LSU assistant, former Nick Saban assistant. He is very well thought of by a lot of people inside LSU, especially some really influential people."

No one knows what will happen with Fisher — it wouldn’t surprise me if he stays at Texas A&M. It would be equally unsurprising if he left for LSU.

Tucker seems a bit easier to predict. If he’s offered the job, there’s no way he could turn it down.

LSU is one of the best jobs on the planet. Tucker would be crazy to turn it down if it was offered to him.

I’b bet on one of these two guys being LSU’s next head coach. Woodward usually gets his guy and he’s clearly zeroed in on these two coaches.