Tag: Bill O’Brien

LSU Morning Rush: More carousel talk, ‘Consider everything. Believe nothing’

The coaching carousel news cycle continues to spin…

Get your popcorn ready. We are in the home stretch with just two weeks remaining in the regular season. OK. One week from today is the season final for the LSU Tigers. With that said, it is time for coaching carousel talk; I know you love it.

As Ross Dellenger pointed out on Twitter, you should consider everything but believe nothing. The thing to consider when digesting news surrounding potential candidates for a job is everyone has an agenda. Either they are providing quality intel on a situation or it is agent-driven to help get their client get a new deal. There is a third option, throwing things against a wall and seeing if it sticks. Differentiating among them is the difficult part.

Take for example the Bill O’Brien chatter. It didn’t sit well with the LSU faithful. Meanwhile, the Alabama fans would love it. Why is that? Well, the fan base in Tuscaloosa would love nothing more than to shove O’Brien off to one of their rivals — or anyone that would take him. Questionable calls have left the fans scratching their heads. Who would have thought the heat on O’Brien would have Tide fans happy with Pete Golding? Who, I might add, they were ready to send to Austin with Steve Sarkisian nine months ago.

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O’Brien wasn’t the only name being pushed on Friday. We heard from one Kentucky insider that Mark Stoops was in the running for the job as well. Why would we see Stoops’ name get thrown into the mix? Why not? Being associated with the LSU job earned Jimbo Fisher another contract. Mel Tucker is on the verge of signing a 10-year extension. It will probably get Lincoln Riley and Stoops a new extension as well.

When it comes to the validity of Stoops’ candidacy, I might believe it was real if he didn’t have a $20 million buyout attached to his name.

It seems as though LSU is getting everyone paid while not having to pay any of them. Welcome to the agent season portion of the coaching carousel. Also, who is Jimbo Fischer? All kidding aside, who hasn’t misspelled a coach’s name on Twitter.

On the topic of coaches who were once linked to the LSU job, did James Franklin admit he was staying with Penn State?

According to Neil Rudel of the Altoona Mirror, via Twitter, Franklin received a positive reaction from the State College Quarterback Club when he told them he plans on staying at Penn State in 2022.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Franklin reportedly told the crowd of up to 200 people on Wednesday.

Consider everything, believe nothing.

LSU Fan Reax: How the fanbase took the news of Bill O’Brien being in the mix

“If Bill O’Brien becomes the next LSU head coach and I have to deal with this dude again… I am forever just giving up on sports.”

The LSU Tigers are deep into their hunt for the next head coach. Many have speculated names such as Jimbo Fisher based on his ties to current athletic director Scott Woodward. We have written about the laundry list of names, even mentioning one Bill O’Brien who seemed to be back in the news on Thursday and Friday.

On ESPN Rece Davis, a noted Alabama alum and host of ‘College Game Day’ stated he believed O’Brien would be the next head coach of the LSU Tigers. O’Brien is currently going through the Nick Saban coaching rehabilitation program at Alabama.

As you might have expected the fans didn’t take the news very well and for good reason. If Scott Woodward did end up hiring, or at the very least announcing that O’Brien is set to become the head coach we have a situation. I am talking about Tennesse and Greg Schiano-type situation.

Here is how fans took it.

Was former Texans coach Bill O’Brien trying to get fired to take over for Bill Belichick in New England?

ESPN writer Seth Wickersham’s new book “It’s Better to Be Feared” alleges Bill O’Brien tried to get the Houston Texans to fire him.

Was Bill O’Brien so bad in his final year with the Houston Texans that he was trying to get fired in an effort to take over for New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick?

According to ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, that may have been the plan, and the details are in his forthcoming book “It’s Better to Be Feared,” which chronicles to latter days of the Tom Brady and Belichick partnership.

Owner Robert Kraft, Brady, and others talked about scenarios to replace Belichick, and O’Brien’s name came up in scenarios wherein offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, a natural successor to Belichick, left for another gig.

“The plan was fanciful,” Wickersham writes, “but O’Brien heard about it. He was in a power struggle of his own in Houston, fighting with general manager Rick Smith, a ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘toxic’ situation, according to the Houston Chronicle. The leaks from O’Brien’s camp, claiming he wanted out, were so aggressive as to be suspicious, as if he knew he had a golden parachute. In the end, though, the [Texans] chose O’Brien over Smith, giving the coach more control over football operations. O’Brien later joked to a confidant that it was a somewhat empty victory. ‘I was trying to get fired,’ he said.”

The timing on the plan is all wrong and needs further fleshing out.

First of all, O’Brien “won” his power struggle with Rick Smith in January 2018 when Smith stepped away to spend time with his wife ill with breast cancer. The Texans hired Brian Gaine as general manager that month, and he wasn’t fired until June 2019. At that time, O’Brien started to have more influence in football operations, and was promoted to general manager at the end of the 2019 campaign.

From the time O’Brien allegedly heard the Patriots were going to replace Belichick, two regular seasons had passed: 2018-19. The Texans won the AFC South both seasons.

So, O’Brien purposely blew a 24-0 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC divisional because he was trying to make a good impression to Kraft and Brady? Does that also go for his trading of DeAndre Hopkins and the 0-4 start in 2020 that did lead to his dismissal?

More details are needed, because the results from that time frame are more indicative of an average coach who was wrongfully bestowed personnel power than a master plan to take over for Belichick.