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What Coaches Will USC Compete Against LSU?

USC and LSU are likely to go after the same coaches for their vacancies.

Both schools are expected to talk to Penn State coach James Franklin. They could also both be interested in Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell.

And Baylor coach Dave Aranda will be someone both could want to talk to. Aranda was already defensive coordinator at LSU and Mike Bohn tried to hire him at USC as defensive coordinator.

What about Orgeron? Is there any path for him to USC?

He would have been a popular choice two years ago but Bohn is unlikely to want to hire someone who just lost his job.

Maybe a best-case scenario would be for LSU to hire Jimbo Fisher. He wouldn’t consider USC and would cost too much money. That would free everyone else up for USC.

83 thoughts on “What Coaches Will USC Compete Against LSU?”

  1. With enough talent (Burrow and company), and with the top-tier assistants, Coach O got it down. But whittle away at that, and voila, his team becomes middle of the pack in the SEC. Aranda sounds great, I also like Fickell, not so high on Franklin. I trust Bohn can figure out who are the best available. Will Carol spend $8 million a year and let the new person clean house?

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    1. CEO had a 10 win team, and did terrific recruiting, got the right coordinators and popped a national championship run. He’s good to do it again, and SC makes it that much easier. He has deep connections with the machinery and people for SC to dominate, and he’s a talent scout especially along the lines and the defense, not just a recruit by rankings guy.

      He was too successful in a way, as his coordinators went on to bigger things quickly. The SEC West, the revival of the SEC East and the revival of the Texas and Oklahoma Big 12 teams is squeezing the talent box for him.

      But if you pair him with some good coordinators, SC would be foolish not to hire him. He’s more accomplished than any candidate mentioned not smeared for a woman dancing next to him for 5 seconds.

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      1. Darrius Guice.

        While I don’t favor Urban (at this stage in his life) nor Orgeron (at age 60),
        I think Orgeron’s Title IX issues at LSU are LIKELY far more reprehensible than
        Urban’s role in the Smith domestic abuse case. The State of Ohio released all the
        information on the OSU investigation in 2019. Go read it.

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    3. We already have a head coach in MARTIN, OC in HARRELL and DC in ORLANDO. I propose who we are not who.we are not! Don’t turn your back on these fine Trojan coaches!

      Or maybe we should ask coach Clay to return with our deepest apologies…

      Once a Trojan always a Trojan!!

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  2. I agree on Fisher, but seems like LSU would be a lateral move football-wise. A&M has a $13 billion academic endowment, so their athletic department has crazy donor funding as well. LSU is at a surprisingly paltry $542 million.

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    1. Hmm. I dunno. A&M’s endowment is shared through the entire A&M system of 11 universities and 10 Ag, industrial and Life Science research stations, and is tied to the money that was originally allotted to the university system and its investment increase over the 150 yrs.

      The UC system, which is akin to the Texas A&M system, is about $23 billion, and some of the UC schools (Berkeley and UGLY in particular) carry an extra university specific endowment of substantial size). Yet somehow Cal and UGLY fb still suck. lol (Yes, I’m aware of their other championships but still…)

      LSU’s $542 million is actually a larger endowment for its model of a taxpayer reliant single public university. Alabama, a substantially larger university than LSU, is $800 million, about the same size per student. (There are some universities, like UVA, UMich, etc. that are public but have become much more autonomous and carry much bigger endowments, in turn for less taxpayer spending.) Of course we’re talking academic endowments here, which don’t always correlate with athletic endowments.

      At any rate, look at us at USC– we’ve got one of the biggest athletic endowments of any school in the nation, but we’ve been hiring dud after dud, and not always spending what SC easily could manage, though we never skimp on our Athletic Directors, which we always pay tops in the nation for regardless of outcomes. 🤷

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      1. Pretty thorough analysis 👍 I didn’t mention U of Texas $32 billion endowment. I think the Austin and College Station campuses drive those two university systems. Yes UC system not synonymous with big-time CFB.

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    2. Smart analysis, though I would prefer that Jimbo goes to LSU.
      Benefit to Jimbo would be:
      1. He now may take a bunch of Louisiana recruits–likely tough to do in Texas
      2. He has made inroads on Texas recruiting–likely may expect to keep some of his Texas pipeline.
      3. He has a history in Florida–also a recruiting hot bed.

      Irrespective, Texas AM has a great home football atmosphere and lotsa money. Smart guy stays in Texas.

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      1. Is it my imagination, or didn’t it appear that Coach O was NOT ENJOYING the perfect season run in 2019?

        He knew the Title IX case was coming forward.
        He knew his players and asst were going to bail on him.

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    2. Kartje and McCullough Michigan guys and couldn’t be bothered with calling for Clay Helton’s firing for two years. But let’s get rid of that MF’r Jim Harbaugh posthaste!

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    3. Brady McCullough downplaying Luke Fickell to USC; hopeful that he’ll replace Harbaugh at Michigan in the next couple of years. Keep dreamin’ a-hole✌️

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  5. Bill, SC just FINALLY FIRED that lazy, incompetent, non-competitive guy. I want a guy with drive who wants to play Alabama and Ohio ST and win. Beating them takes training and aggressive, physical practices. I think we owe that training to the student athletes so they can fulfill their dreams. If they desire to go into the NFL, they will need to compete on the highest levels or they will not be drafted.
    Granted a few SC phenoms have been drafted and doing well. However, it’s based on their own drive, not helton’s dumbing down and weakness protocol. SC’s draft numbers under the weak coach are much lower than under Carroll. SC should desire to have their team members drafted and successful in their chosen field.
    I agree PAC12 is not is a pushover, but I hope to have a coach who wants to exceed mediocrity, strive and teach the team to strive to be the best they can be.

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      1. Hopefully Caruso finds his balls. Right now folt appears to be wielding the power despite her ignorance about SC heritage and traditions and football in general. Talk about arrogance, that lady has it all.

        Liked by 5 people

      2. I’ve been to New Orleans … the food and the people are great, but the humidity is unbearable. Plus the South is a different culture.

        Liked by 2 people

      5. Hmmm…

        Muffaletta from Central Grocery on Decatur in the Crescent City

        VS

        Phillipe’s French Dip on the Alameda in the City of Angels?

        I couldn’t choose.

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  7. Despite their oil money riches, I find it humorous that Texas has barely won anything in the last 50 years and A&M has never won sh*t. USC has won 5 National Championships in that time. Suck on that.

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  8. Does Orgeron have a path back to USC ? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That’s hilarious Scotty

    Read this and you can form your own opinion, my guess is Folt just might veto him.

    There’s been off-field turmoil as well. Orgeron is a defendant in a Title IX suit against the school. The suit alleges that Orgeron — the team’s defensive line coach at the time — did not report a sexual assault allegation against LSU running back Derrius Guice in 2016. Orgeron has denied the allegations against him. Guice has been accused of multiple cases of sexual harassment and sexual assault and his statistics have been stripped from LSU’s record books.

    Orgeron and his wife Kelly divorced after over 20 years of marriage less than two months after the Tigers won the national title in January 2020. According to a story in the Athletic, a single Orgeron made inappropriate remarks to the wife of an LSU athletic department staffer at a gas station.

    It created messes for him, like the time Orgeron pulled up to a woman at a gas station wearing exercise attire. “Hey, you look like you work out,” he said, according to multiple sources. “We could work out together.” The woman informed Orgeron she was married and pregnant, to which he responded, “Why does that matter?”

    That woman was the wife of a high-ranking LSU official. Word of this reached the LSU Board of Supervisors, the collection of prominent Louisiana attorneys and business owners appointed by the governor who make the most important decisions at LSU. And of course, it reached LSU athletic director Scott Woodward.

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    1. Orgerin is not a great head coach. He won 2 years ago because he had Aranda as defensive co-ordinator and Brady as offensive co-ordinator and Burrow at QB. Helton looked great when he had Sam at QB. What has he done since. Ditka won a super bowl when Buddy Ryan was the defensive co-ordinator but once Buddy left, the bears went steadily downhill.

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    2. Well, all of that pointed about by McKay’s spirit will sharpen Carol’s veto pen.

      Maybe we start off with trying to recruit Coach O, push hard, and then settle for Urban, who doesn’t have such a transgression, at least not the last two years. (Assuming the pseudo-lap dance doesn’t involve any title IX stuff or any trustees…).

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      1. Bohn to Folt: “I think we can sell Urban Meyer to our fan base. Let’s get Wanda Austin to do a promotional video saying Coach Meyer doesn’t drink, do drugs or hit up married pregnant women.”
        #”UnlikeSomeOtherCoachesWeKnow”….

        Liked by 1 person

    4. Evidently Orgeron personally sought out a woman whom Guice had raped and asked her to forgive Guice, stating “he’s a young man with serious problems.”

      I’m not sure if Guice was benched after raping or harrassing these women.

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  9. The best coach out there is Fickell. I think SC is a better job than LSU. At SC you don’t have to play Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas A& M. The talent market that they are sitting on is great and there are only 2 schools in the vicinity that are vying for that talent. There is a lot of talent in Texas and Florida but look at all the schools that are competing for that talent.

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    1. A winning coach that can put players in the NFL would be able to recruit across the country at USC.

      Hiring Ogeron would be a huge mistake. Ogeron got lucky at LSU, with the perfect combo of Aranda as defensive coordinator and Burrows. But good head coaches are able to re-load their staff, like Saban does, and still maintain elite level play. Ogeron is not that guy. No way he should be hired.

      Aranda is showing that he can put together a football program as head coach. He is smart, smart, smart. Hire him already. Good coordinators will want to work for Aranda because he is the smartest football mind in any room. Very analytical guy. OK, he isnt charismatic.

      Baylor has a run game, solid defense and game management is impeccable. Solid offensive and defensive lines. Solid run defense. The only loss to Oklahoma State was a 17-14 game until the last few minutes of play. Aranda’s offense did struggle against OS, but the defense kept them in the game.

      If Baylor goes 10-2 and shows they can hang with Oklahoma, Aranda will move to the #1 candidate. USC would be a job where Aranda would stay and spend the next decade being the Nick Saban of the West Coast. Fickell’s family might not like it here and want to pursue something else.

      But I would be happy with either.

      Kalani fell down the list after the Baylor game. But if Baylor can beat up on BYU and BYU can beat up Pac-12 teams, that is a good sign how Aranda would do in Pac-12.

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      1. Fickell is the best. But Aranda is growing on me. If you would have said Aranda last year, I would have said no but Fickell is the rest.

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      2. I don’t think I would hire Orgerin even as a D-Line coach even though he’s one of the best D-line coaches in the nation. I don’t know that he would give his 100% effort to the job as a D-Line coach. That’s because he doesn’t want to be a D-Line coach. He wants to be a head coach. Yet he’s had 2 shots at it and he has failed twice. He lasted 3 years at Mississippi and 5 years at LSU and then he was interim coach at SC and LSU. I don’t think I would re-hire him

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      3. On the same page, gamer.
        I’m not sold on Kelani Sitaki. Let’s see how BYU does at the Coliseum in November.

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      1. …So how disappointed are you gonna be when it’s Mike Leach?
        #…AndHeKeepsHisBoy,Harrell?
        #[Bohn:”It’sTooEarlyToGiveUpOnTheAirRaid…It’sTheFuture”]!

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    3. I must wonder if deeply Catholic Luke Fickell is holding out for Kelly’s job at Notre Dame. Kelly is getting pretty old and must be tiring of the CFB fight. If we think
      the job at USC is tough, I must think ND is 2x tougher.

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      1. Kelly will be 60 on Oct. 25 He has 7-8 good years left and he doesn’t have to rebuild the program. He’s pretty much got all the pieces in place right now. Why would he leave at 60 to start all over somewhere else? I don’t think that Kelly is going anywhere. If Fickell is waiting for Kelly to leave, he may have a long wait.

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  10. O is a toxic creep just like every other moron from the Pete Carroll coaching weed. Pete really created some real pigs in Kiffin, Suck, and O. Think people would learn these piles of garbage have combined to be fired 8 times in 12 years.

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      1. Like hell … Suck’s lazy ass wasn’t even on the staff in 2004. Kiffin was a nobody. O had a part but minimal. It took the pea brains of Suck and Goatboy to F up 2005 but they found a way. Frauds. Creeps.

        Btw …. O has gone of the deep end, what a train wreck. Lucky a pissed off player, staff member, ex wife, some harassed woman’s hubby, didn’t shoot him.

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    2. they also were hired and did well and have winning programs , unlike hellton led sc,and the AD’s that enabled him and gave him raises; ,sc is a has been classless univ since haden times…but they are still my #1 since 1951…when they had class.

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    3. PC is a good guy. Positive spirit. Fun-loving guy. Compete forever.
      The turds below him thought that they were the same person or could be the same person. They were not.

      The last 20 years with Coach O show that he was a great recruiter who should have stayed in his lane: DLine and/or asst DC at the most. Issues with alcohol (sober now).
      Issues with the ladies (likely unresolved).

      He can take his 17 bills–split it with his ex–and retire to a shrimpin’ boat.

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  12. Facebook is peddling Kiffin to LSU and Pete to USC with Ed O as the defensive coordinator. I don’t see any of this happening
    I expect USC to hire a “who?” from nowhere, because that’s the way they roll.
    BTW Orgeron is getting 17 million to dry up and blow away. He’s probably not allowed to compete so USC fits. We haven’t been competitive for a decade.

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  13. Dave “F**king” Roberts” blows another game with his tactical mismanagement. Why is Robert’s a MLB manager. There was zero reason to bring in Uris into the game at that point in time. Barnes and Pollack are automatic swinging strike outs.

    #Once again Roberts snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

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    1. Since we (you & me) have decided just asking innocent questions cannot be libelous —what do you think the chances are somebody is paying Roberts 4 times his salary to blow this thing?
      #I’mJustAsking

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      1. 67–
        I think the Dodgers have been thinking the SAME thing…..
        #”PleaseLetUsGoBackInTime&WinFair&Square…”

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    3. I picked the Rays so what do I know, but did say around same time I had a feeling Giants and Dodgers might wear each other out with the season-long into playoffs pressure…nothing scientific, just recall how in ’93 the Giants and Braves staged a similar contest…and the Braves were in the throes of being the best team year-after-year (but only winning one World Series – and in a strike season)…but goes taken out by a fairly ordinary Phillies team that had a hot pitcher (Danny Jackson). who always pitched well in post-season.

      Roberts mis/over managed the bullpen, and taking Scherzer out after the one HR…if you’re up 1-0 instead of down 1-0, I can see it almost, in terms of wanting him to come back in a Game 5…otherwise, don’t see the justification…

      Think it’s great more managers have finally adopted to what guys like Sparky Anderson and Dick Williams knew in the ’70s – post-season means normal rules go out the window…and don’t stand on norms (so bring your closer in in the 5th inning if it’s important enough)…

      But they didn’t do that when they had their aces (Catfish Hunter or Don Gullett) on the hill unless they just didn’t have it. Scherzer gave up a cheap HR…in today’s game, that’s routines…but otherwise was effective…and he’s a competitor.

      The other three teams besides the Dodgers are not particularly likable…hope the Dodgers find a way back…

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      1. Have been texting with a gal friend who moved to Idaho this year from LA, but still goes back for Dodgers games and USC-UCLA (she’s a grad an fan of the Bruins – so it’s a mixed bag!) who is a big Dodgers fan…she echoed sentiment about management/decisions…she did point last year’s series…and 2-0 is frequently come back from…so the ship is still afloat (just need some southern California comfort)…

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  14. Dave Roberts- is over managing the games. Too much bullpen, and the chances of every relief pitcher being on their A game night after night are very slim. Stupid move to put Urias in the game, and to me the Dodger luck is running out. The team looks very tired, and it is going to be tough in game 4 after using Urias tonight, and if you get that far who do you pitch in game 5 as Max needs some rest.

    To me Graterol, and Treinen should have been left in the game longer.
    The Dodgers don’t know how to put a big inning together unless they hit home runs as everyone swings for the fences especially AJ Pollack who in my opinion needs to traded in the off season.

    Bottom line the Dodgers have the best starting pitching in baseball they need to use these guys longer in games rather than going to the bullpen so early in games.

    Down 0-2 …….should be 2-0 going home. I hate to say this, but I don’t see a miracle comeback this season the Dodgers look out of gas after the very tough Giant series. Just doesn’t seem meant to be with Kersahw, and Muncy out for the playoffs.

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      2. James and tommyd came thru with amazingly astute analysis —
        #AdmittedlyThey’reAHardActToFollow…
        #….ButSomehow….

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  15. You heard it here——don’t count out a return of Pete Carroll, and Ed Orgeron coming back back as the defensive coordinator asst. head coach.
    I see LSU going for Dave Aranda they realize now he was the key guy when they won the national title not Orgeron. Fickell, might go to LSU, or just stay put at Cincy where he is the king of the city, and why move the family from the Midwest to a mess like LA and USC.

    I would not be surprised if USC talks to Brian Kelly at ND. Kelly, if not already has the most wins ever by a Notre Dame football coach so what else is there to prove at ND, and USC can match any ND offer. Probably is a long shot, but Kelly has run a very clean program at ND with very few scandals, and just might hit it off with Bohn and Folt. Definitely would be a shock to many in college football, but somehow I feel Kelly is at the point in his career where he will either move to the NFL, or another big time program in college football.

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    1. Kelly runs the cleanest, bestest program — except for allowing that student assistant to get killed by putting up in a scaffold during 45-50 mile winds…
      #HeImmediatelySaidHeWasSorry,Though…
      #..SoItAllWentAway

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    2. …remind me how many USC coaches have switched allegiance and coached at ND?
      Likewise, how many ND coaches have switched and come to coach at USC?
      My memory is failing me.

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  18. If USC is going to “compete” their coaches against LSU, I’m not sure Donte Williams has what it takes to defeat a Cajun brawler like Ed Orgeron. If USC is going to “compete for” coaches against LSU, well that’s something entirely different.

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  19. I’ll get wonkish tomorrow…

    Aranda–my first choice and likely a reasonable buyout. Waco loves Baylor and its college, but the Big 12 is soon to shrivel with OU and Tejas departing. Make the move now, Dave. Come back to LA.

    Fickell–choice 1.1. I doubt his big Catholic family wants to come to the city of Angels.
    If I’m Swarbrick and Kelly, I’m talking to the Catholic boy at Cincy already. If Fickell’s midwest Catholic family thinks they’ll hate Los Angeles, try sin city Louisiana style.

    Matt Campbell–did my homework. He is a great choice and “obtainable.”
    Look at his FPI numbers at ISU with 2-3star talent. There is one major problem, which I will address tomorrow.

    Franklin–still a great choice. Should beat UCLA yearly and maybe ND. Ten wins each and every year.

    Jon Smith–the gamble.

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    1. You hit on the Magic Factor in this coaching search from USC’s perspective: The Quality of Life in Louisiana ……

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    2. I think that Fickell wants to achieve the best success that he can achieve. You don’t do that at Cincinnati. That’s why Saban left Michigan State. That’s why all the real good coaches work their way up the ladder to get where they can really can succeed big. They don’t stay in one city or one part of the country just because they like it. They make the moves that they have to make to get where they want to be in their career. Once in a while you have people like Bill Snyder who was a great coach, could have been much more succesful at a different place but chose to stay where he was at because he liked his surroundings but not very often.

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