LSU Morning Rush: LSU-Alabama viewer numbers, coaching carousel updates

Coaching carousel and viewership notes from LSU-Alabama.

The top stories from around the web involve the LSU Tigers from Yahoo Sports and ESPN. Pete Thamel gives you one name to watch as the Tigers chase down their next head coach. Not to be outdone by a report breaking down how many fans tuned into the LSU-Alabama showdown in Tuscaloosa.

No. 1 target identified by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports

C. Morgan Engel-USA TODAY Sports

What Thamel Says…

The LSU job is the most attractive on the market. And that’s not expected to change, regardless of any other movement. Until another coach is walked to the podium at the news conference by athletic director Scott Woodward, it’s safe to project Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher as the target here. That’s always been Woodward’s dream candidate, and his history of paying historic amounts for Fisher is the best empirical evidence of that desire. Who from there? The names are all familiar – James Franklin, Luke Fickell, Dave Aranda, Lane Kiffin and Mel Tucker. If it’s not Fisher, the name will be big and the price tag expensive. Expect the LSU-Texas A&M game to end the season in Baton Rouge to be a quintessential SEC spectacle. – Pete Thamel on LSU and Jimbo Fisher

That goes differently than what Dennis Dodd recently said about who he thinks LSU should and will hire.

LSU-Alabama game is the most-watched game since…LSU-Alabama in 2019

Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

According to a press release from ESPN, the LSU-Alabama matchup was the most-watched game since these two teams met in 2019.

The most-watched game of the weekend on ESPN networks was LSU at Alabama (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), averaging 5 million viewers – the most-viewed college football game on cable this year. The primetime presentation was the top game in Week 10 among key male and adult demos (18-34, 18-49, 25-54). The audience was up 18 percent from the same matchup in 2020 and peaked with 6 million viewers from 10-10:15 p.m. in the final minutes of the game.

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