When, and who, will Les Miles hire?

The biggest question in Baton Rouge these days is when will Les Miles announce staff changes amongst his assistant coaches. If you've got a pulse, and you bleed purple & gold, you've got an opinion.

Everyone from former NFL Head Coaches to former LSU Defensive Coordinators have been rumored for the job. Hell, it's even been intimated by some that there may be no changes forthcoming from the Football Operations Facility, whatsoever. Which makes me wonder exactly how strong the gates are over there, and whether the glass doors of the facility are made out of glass, or actual Lexan?

Folks with the ability to draw on perspective would remind us that both Gary Crowton & Bo Pelini were hired not only after the bowl game, but after National Signing Day. Most of the smoke signals I hear indicate that yes, The Hat is aware there is a problem, and yes, he is definitely going to make changes. Judging from the fact that I tend to trust the folks I hear these things from, along with Les Miles' previous history, I'm going to say that they're probably right, and that we might not be able to expect the impending changes until after the Bayou Recruiting Bash come National Signing Day.

Which will make for quite an interesting reception when-at the end of the day, and all the faxes have been...well....facsimiled...Les Miles will come from straight from his Press Conference at LSU to the thousands of crazed LSU Fans gathered to hear him speak. You see, after Les comes up on stage, he usually introduces his assistants.

If he hasn't made a change by then, I wonder exactly how many cheers and claps Bradley Dale Peveto & Doug Mallory will receive when their names are called out by Les. If they aren't there, well...Maybe that'll finally be the tell that we're all looking for.

The names everyone's heard:

John Chavis, late of Tennessee and twice interviewed by Clemson and the Dabo Swinney regime there. The chance of this guy coming to LSU seems somewhat similar to Jeff Conway's chances of actually staying sober (Fight the good fight, Dr. Drew!)

DeWayne Walker, the current UCLA DC, who has also interviewed twice, only for the head coaching job at San Diego State. SDSU isn't ever going to be confused with a football power, but Walker seems to be of a mind to be a Head Coach, or bust...LSU's chances with this guy are about the same as Oprah being The Biggest Loser.

The names that hopelessly addicted LSU Football Fans who hang out on message boards all day are hearing:

Phil Bennet...The former LSU, Texas A&M, & Kansas State DC, and late of the wayward and woebegone SMU program as their head coach, I just don't see LSU going for him. His best years as a defensive tactician were from the mid 90's to the early part of this decade.

My personal take on Bennett is that while he's a name familiar with LSU Fans, and he's refused in print to speculate on whether or not he's spoken to anyone on behalf of LSU, this job is going to call for a state of industry hire. With MSU hiring Dan Mullen today, we've got the architect of the Spread Option Offense in Urban Meyer, and his playcaller in Mullen, as permanent conference opponents...Do we really want a guy who was putting together dominant defenses...10 years ago?

Karl Dunbar...Now, this would be an interesting hire. He's currently an NFL Defensive Line Coach, and was also a coach at LSU, serving as de-facto Assistant DL Coach underneath Pete Jenkins during the early Saban years. This is a guy who many Tiger Fans would be happy with. He's also considered an up-and-comer in coaching-both NFL & otherwise-circles...

...and now, for something COMPLETELY different:

Chuck Pagano...Secondary Coach in Baltimore...We're talking about a guy with NFL experience, as well as a guy whose coached Dieon Sanders, Chris McAllister, and Ed Reed (For all intents and purposes, is not Ed Reed the best player in the NFL right now, by the way?). This guy has loads of experience, and the word is that he might return to the collegiate ranks for the right amount of legal tender, for all debts, public and private.

Bobby Jack Wright, Asst. Head Coach, Asst. Defensive Coordinator, Secondary Coach at Oklahoma...The guy's got an entire resume in his current title with the Sooners, doesn't he? My only thoughts here are, doesn't Oklahoma already have 628 Co-Defensive Coordinators? Do they really need an assistant to all of them? What exactly is the Assistant to Co-Coordinators responsible for on the OU Defense? Is it like being first assistant to the assistant location director on a movie shot with exactly one scene set on said location?

One thing's for sure, Billy Jack won't faint at the sight of blood. Being a secondary coach in the Big XII is somewhat akin to being a glutton for punishment, one would have to think.

Some other out of left field ideas include Mike Waufle, the NY Football Giants current DL Coach, along with NFC East opponent Sean McDermott, who coaches the secondary for the Iggles of Philadelphia. Both guys are well thought of in coaching cirles (See Karl Dunbar), and both would be an energetic, reaching hire that shows Miles is willing to think outside of the box to get talent from the NFL and see what it can do at the collegiate level...

As for my opinion from high atop the Soap Box?

First, you've got to give Les Miles his time...and his due...The man's no idiot, and he's shown you he will go get quality hires (Bo Pelini & Gary Crowton were very much employed at the time they came to LSU) regardless of price, or location. I believe he's realized his mistake, he's pissed about it, and he's going to make it right. Just give him some space, folks...

As for whom he should hire? An LSU tie would be nice (No, we're not talking about neckwear), but not required. What would be more important to me-and what I'm guessing are more than a few Tiger Fans-is a disciplined, aggressive, dare I say it-assholish?-individual, who is unafraid to challenge the coaches underneath him, as well as his players, to perform up to their potential.

What I'd also like to wish for from Papa Noel this Crimmus here in South Louisiana is a guy whose shown some results-or at least has gone up against with some modcium of success when he's matched up-against the Spread Option.

Like it or not, the Spread's here to stay, and between our out of-and in-conference opponents, by my account, LSU faced four (Appalachian State, North Texas, Troy, & Florida) opponents who employed it fulltime as their base offense. Now that we can count State amongst that number, that means that we're inching up on half the teams on our schedule who are going to attack us with that.

It'd be awfully nice if we could find a guy who had some experience or track record in shutting The Nouveau Wishbone down on a consistent basis during his recent career.

That's all for now...Till the next episode...