In 1979, Rupert Holmes became a legacy with his song "Escape", better known around the world as "The Pina Colada Song", where a man looking for a new love discovers that his current girlfriend is the ideal choice. It's good advice for Joe Alleva at Louisiana State University, where his best choice in his college football coach might be Ed Orgeron, the man currently training at LSU.
Earlier this season, after losses closer to Auburn University on the road, LSU fired the head football coach Les Miles for going 2-2 (he had also lost to a top-10 team, the University of Wisconsin). All Miles had done was win a National Championship, take the team to another National Championship after winning the Southeast Conference (SEC) and another SEC West title, winning 77% of his games at LSU, with five Top 10 finals .
After choosing Ed Orgeron as the interim coach, Alleva made googly eyes at the head coach of everyone else. He made fun of Jimbo Fisher of Florida State University, beat Tom Herman of the University of Houston and wanted to court any other coach not named Nick Saban, the former LSU coach and leader of the University of Alabama who almost always he seemed to get the best of Miles.
Meanwhile, Orgeron and his teammates rescued an impressive season. Apart from a close (and controversial) loss to Alabama (10-0) and a final second loss to the SEC Eastern Champion of the University of Florida, the team had a great year, crowned by an impressive 47-31 victory over Texas A & M on Thanksgiving Day, while Alleva was gaping at a long list of coaches.
As Yahoo Sports reported in interviews with players, the locker room wants the coach Orgeron … wrong. "He's done a great job," said LSU running back Derrius Guice after the team beat Texas A & A. "He's a family man, he keeps us close, he reminds us you're fighting for your brothers. I just want the coach to stay O. We need someone like the Coach O to guide us there Coach O has my vote to the end. "
As for the other suitors, there are already signs that Fisher, a former LSU offensive coordinator, would not be welcome at all with open arms. "And The Valley Shook" already started shooting Fisher in multiple columns, claiming he was not so good when he was in LSU. They attributed all their success to the recruitment of a player, Jameis Winston, ignoring the fact that Fisher has virtually supplied the NFL with Seminole talent in attack and defense. It took more than one player to win that National Championship and enter the National Championship tiebreak the following year with just one quarterback. FSU needs to maintain it.
Fisher approaches legendary trainer Bobby Bowden for developing a legacy in Tallahassee. His impressive 81 percent winning percentage is beloved at FSU, but he's only a few points above Miles's winning percentage. He's an injured quarterback or a defensive low who does not want to be a job candidate at Baylor University (as Miles is) after being locked up by LSU in a few years, even if he wins a National Championship in Baton Rouge .
Herman of Houston is already the subject of a love triangle between his current school, the University of Texas and LSU. I watched their Cougars beat the Seminoles at the Peach Bowl (with the help that FSU must first rely on a third-line QB and the second-line QB playing on a broken ankle for the rest of the game after leaving with an injury ). But Herman should realize that neither Texas nor LSU would treat him so well if he lost games to the Navy and Louisville, as he did this year. Herman is good, and Houston should reward him with a competitive contract.
While Alleva played the football version under the table with other coaching agents, his team responded incredibly to the leadership of Ed Orgeron. After the big win over Texas A & M, the players repeatedly chanted the name of Coach O, according to USA Today. They want him to stay. Although Orgeron fought at the University of Mississippi (how easy is it to recruit a wide variety of soccer players under a Confederate flag?), He restored respectability to USC. The school responded by letting it go after it saved the school, just to make a disastrous contract.
Does not it sound a lot like Pina Colada's song, where the protagonist looking for a new girlfriend writes a personal ad, looks for someone to share all his favorite things to do? The person who responds positively to your ad to "escape" meets him at the bar, and it turns out to be his current love. The two presumably live happily ever after, perhaps winning a National Championship in the next few years.
John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu.
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