Rece Davis predicts surprise candidate in LSU coaching search

ESPN analyst Rece Davis made a rather surprising suggestion for the LSU head coaching vacancy on Tuesday’s ESPN College Football Podcast, arguing that the LSU Tigers will go after Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.

“This is a bit of a prediction. I think Bill O’Brien is going to be the next coach at LSU,” Davis said on the podcast.

O’Brien would certainly be a surprising choice, and Davis’ reaction on the podcast — “Oh my God” — helps illustrate just that.

Davis clarified that O’Brien wouldn’t be LSU’s first choice. Instead, he thinks LSU’s first choice would be Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, but it seems increasingly unlikely that LSU can court Fisher, especially after his choice of words Wednesday. Another potential name, Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker, isn’t likely to be an option, Davis argued; Davis and Pollack agreed that Tucker would probably stay at Michigan State. With LSU having to stoop down on its coaching list, Davis believes O’Brien would be one of the next candidates in line.

“There is no way in Sam you-know-what homeboy that you are hiring Bill O’Brien, unless you’ve heard that from somebody, somewhere,” Pollack said to Davis. “Because there ain’t no way you’re going, ‘of all the guys I can have, I’ll take Bill O’Brien.'”

O’Brien has had an up-and-down performance in his first and only season as Alabama’s offensive coordinator. Granted, Alabama’s offense has had no trouble scoring and the Crimson Tide have lost just one game, but O’Brien has made some costly decisions in certain instances, as was the case in Alabama’s loss to Texas A&M.

If O’Brien were hired at LSU, it would mark his first college head coaching gig since 2013. He spent two seasons as the head coach of Penn State, after being hired in 2012, and amassed a 15-9 overall record at the helm. From there, O’Brien was hired by the Houston Texans, where he served as head coach from 2014 until 2020. O’Brien was fired after the 2020 season in Houston.

“Bill O’Brien is on several lists,” Davis said. “Not just [LSU’s]. He’s a former NFL head coach, he did a remarkable job at Penn State, and so I think there are a lot of people in hiring positions — not just at LSU — who are considering him and like the NFL experience, even if it did go sour at the end. There is some attractiveness to having that NFL experience.”

O’Brien had a lengthy career coaching in the college ranks before landing at Penn State, which included stops at Brown, his alma mater,, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Duke over a ten-plus year span. However, he first made the jump to the NFL in 2007, where he worked for five seasons coaching the New England Patriots’ offense, before landing at Penn State.

LSU announced over a month ago that it would be parting ways with current head coach Ed Orgeron. As part of the agreement, Orgeron will continue to coach the LSU Tigers until the conclusion of the season, before the university goes its separate way. Orgeron, most famously, constructed and coached LSU’s 2019 national championship-winning team, which featured Heisman Trophy-winner Joe Burrow and a perfect, 15-0 record. He has amassed a 49-20 record in six years at the helm of the LSU Tigers, including a 9-11 record since the national title. While Davis suggested that the Tigers replace Orgeron with O’Brien, Pollack made a much more popular prediction.