In 1979, Rupert Holmes became a legacy with his hit song "Escape", better known in 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 is good advice for Joe Alleva at Louisiana State University, where his best choice in his college football coach may be Ed Orgeron, the man who currently trains at LSU.
Earlier this season, after losses closer to Auburn University on the way, LSU fired head football coach Les Miles for going 2-2 (he had also lost to a top ten team, the University of Wisconsin). All Miles had done was win a National Championship, take the team to another National Championship after winning the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and another SEC West title, winning 77% of his games at LSU, with five Top 10 final.
After considering Ed Orgeron as the interim coach, Alleva looked with bulging eyes at the head coach of everyone else. He made a gesture about Jimbo Fisher of Florida State University, beat Tom Herman of the University of Houston and wanted to attract any other coach not named Nick Saban, the former LSU coach and leader of the University of Alabama, who he almost always seemed to get the Best of Miles.
Meanwhile, Orgeron and his teammates saved an impressive season. In addition to a close (and controversial) loss to Alabama (10-0) and a second defeat in the last place in the East of the SEC Champion of the University of Florida, the team had a great year, crowned by an impressive victory of 47-31 over Texas A & M on Thanksgiving Day, while Alleva gaped at a long list of coaches.
As Yahoo Sports reported in interviews with players, the locker room wants the coach Orgeron … wrong. "He has done a great job," said LSU driver Derrius Guice after the team's road win over Texas A & A. "It's a kind of family, it keeps us close, it reminds us that you're fighting for your brothers, we're all one heartbeat, I want the coach to stay in. We need someone like the coach O to guide us in. The coach O has my vote until the end. "
As for the other suitors, there are already indications that Fisher, a former offensive coordinator with LSU, would not be welcome at all with open arms. "And The Valley Shook" already started shooting Fisher in several columns, claiming he was not so good when he was in LSU. They attributed all their success to recruiting a player, Jameis Winston, ignoring the fact that Fisher has practically 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 playoff the following year with just one quarterback. FSU needs to maintain it.
Fisher is approaching legendary trainer Bobby Bowden to develop a legacy in Tallahassee. His impressive winning percentage of 81 percent is dear to FSU, but he is only a few points ahead of Miles's winning percentage. He is an injured QB or defense collapses away from being dragged by a job at Baylor University (like Miles) after being canned by LSU in a few years, even if he wins a National Championship in Baton Rouge.
The Houston Herman is already the subject of a love triangle between his current school, the University of Texas and LSU. I saw their Cougars outstrip the Seminoles in the Peach Bowl (helped by the FSU to have to rely first on a third-string QB and on the QB of the second rope by touching a broken ankle for the rest of the game after dating a injury). But Herman should realize that neither Texas nor LSU would treat him as well if he lost the games against 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 of footsie under the table with the agents of other coaches, his team responded incredibly to the leadership of Ed Orgeron. After the big win over Texas A & M, the players repeatedly repeated the name of Coach O, according to USA Today. They want him to stay. Although Orgeron had problems at the University of Mississippi (how easy is it to recruit a wide variety of soccer players under a Confederate flag?), He brought respectability to USC. The school responded by letting it go after it saved the school, only to make a disastrous hiring.
Does not it look a lot like Pina Colada's song, where the protagonist looking for a new girlfriend writes a personal ad, looking for someone to share all his favorite things to do? The person who responds positively to his announcement of "escape", meets him at the bar and turns out to be his current love. The two probably live happily ever after, maybe 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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