Worst college coach to win a Natty
- Thread starter UpTheMiddlex3Punt
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Lemonis has got this one going away. Chizik was bad, but not Lemonis Bad. Chizik and Coach O didn't give off the "I don't really give a 17" vibe the way Lem does.
Obviously the two that come to mind are Chizik and Orgeron. It's always been amazing to me how someone can just be a cog in the wheel and then a series of actions can put a patchwork job in motion like that. And with a little luck, can end up a champion. I mean take Chizik for example.......had he not lucked into Cam Newton, 8-4 was likely his ceiling, even with Malzahn. It's like these guys are told to just be a figurehead and don't get in the way. But we all see it never works long term.
I am more inclined to give Cohen credit for the natty. Recruited the base of the team, then hired Cannizaro to croot TA, then caused COVID (because librul and all), which caused TA to come back for his senior year. I wouldn't be surprised if he also worked behind the scenes to hurt Bednar's arm to get him to campus too.
I am more inclined to give Cohen credit for the natty. Recruited the base of the team, then hired Cannizaro to croot TA, then caused COVID (because librul and all), which caused TA to come back for his senior year. I wouldn't be surprised if he also worked behind the scenes to hurt Bednar's arm to get him to campus too.
Hard to say. Chizik and Lemonis basically did the same thing. Won a championship after stepping into a good situation and then promptly took their team to the worst in the SEC. Lemonis proved he could get a team back to respectability. Chizik was fired without getting the chance. Chizik did show he was a serviceable coordinator, taking a near worst in the nation defense at UNC and moving them to mediocre over two seasons before resigning.
Orgeron didn't turn LSU into the worst team in the SEC, but with the advantages LSU had, he probably did the equivalent, and like Chizik, was fired before getting a shot at redemption. He also never really provided he could be a solid coordinator, so I think that's a point against him. On the flip side, he won a championship in his third full year, so it wasn't just a situation created by others like Chizik. Granted he was very dependent on his coordinators, but there's something to be said for being able to manage other coaches and staying in your lane. I think he fell off because he reached the pinnacle and lost focus. Not sure he ever could have repeated his championship year, but not sure the formula wouldn't have kept working if he had stayed invested.
Really hard to decide among the three. If Lemonis can turn things around this year and get into the tournament, I would say he is actually the best of the three? At that point, I think you could say he's a pretty good coach in a conference you need to be a good to really good in. Not sure you can say that for Chizik or Orgeron as head coaches.
Had Cohen been content as a baseball coach we have several more nattys. Was the coaching gig too much of a grind? A head coach seems much more prestigious.
Les Miles at LSU. He won 1 NC with Nick Saban's booster recruiting system. He could have won 4 with the talent pool he had. Unfortunately, he was a mediocre coach. Mullen would have won 4 easily with his talent.
LSU has won 4 national championships in 120 years (one being his), yet Les should have won 4 easily. Yeah right. He's only LSU's winningest coach by win percentage in their history.
Which is easy with the talent that he had. Heck, Orgeron even won an NC with his talent. Les Miles was a mediocre coach who did less with more.
I wonder how his lawsuit about the hall of fame requirements is going? Hopefully the defense hasn't introduced evidence of his Kansas football coaching record.
If it's so easy, why doesn't LSU have a dozen national title? Or even 5. BTW, Miles won "with Saban's recruits" in year 3. Orgeron also won his in year 3, so I guess you're going to have to give Miles credit for that one if you're going to give Saban credit for the one Miles did win.
Whoa whoa whoa, let's back up from this.
If the system hadn't been total horse shlt biased toward Saban and Alabama, LSU wins the title again in 2011 with one of the best collections of talent in history. The high flying era had not yet taken over yet, so spare me the they couldn't pass stuff. They beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and played an SEC schedule plus Oregon, West Virginia and Georgia in the SEC championship game, yet Bama gets to skip that and get another rested shot at them. And we all know rematches are just tough.
LSU should have played Oklahoma State in that title game and would have been 14-0. And we likely may not have ever gone to the playoff system, because that 17shlttery is absolutely what pushed us to go away from the BCS.
To go further down the rabbit hole, a plane crash changed college football history. Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach and top assistant were killed in a plane crash the day before Oklahoma State, who was undefeated and ranked #2, was to play Iowa State in a Friday night game. The Oklahoma State players weren’t focused due to the tragedy and lost the game in overtime, allowing Alabama to jump them back to #2. If the plane crash doesn’t happen, Oklahoma State wins that game and plays LSU in the title game, and all the dominoes that fell after that don’t fall.
I give both to Saban. He won 3 for LSU with his booster recruiting system.
LOLOLOLOLOL! Dopey Dan couldn’t beat Saban (0-11 all time IIRC), yet he would have won four national champions. Miles won his championship three years after Saban left and took them to another title game years later.
The LSU Bama rematch year was one of the worst things to happen in college sports before NIL. Alabama did not deserve that rematch. Not qualifying for their own conference championship should have been a deal breaker for the BCS.
Hard to say since he coached us 8 years, won zero, and only made CWS once. May have won a couple if he’d kept at it. May also have won a couple women’s basketball nattys
LOL, Mullen didn't have a roster full of 5 stars like Saban and Miles. It is ludicrous to think a coach with an average of 3.25 stars can beat a 4.75 star average. Miles, Orgeron and Saban won with stacked decks. Mullen did the best he could with the cards he was dealt.