re: Lsu fans admit it

I believe you when you say you aren't trolling. To me LSU and Georgia were in the same boat with Les and Richt, respectively. So I can see a non-LSU or UGA fan asking either of us the same question.

As an LSU fan here's what I think happened with Coach O- after firing Les (and his acknowledged long term success but recent slide to just good enough) the AD needed to make a splash hire to justify firing Les. That label included only a handful of coaches and once it was clear that Jimbo would only come if he was the highest paid coach in college football (and even that wasn't guaranteed) and Tom Herman was going to Texas (after word of his move to LSU leaked and Texas conveniently fired their coach) no "big named" coaches remained. So who was worthy of getting the call up to the big leagues?

Dan Mullen? A good coach who hasn't shown he can get to and stay at the top; the main reason Les lost LSU fans. I think you'd be lambasting LSU for firing Les and replacing him with Dan Mullen, right?

Mike Gundy? Similar to Dan, plus bad optics to go to Oklahoma State back-to-back for coaches. Also has historically bad defenses, which is a failing coaching strategy in the SEC.

Larry Fedora? Exciting offensive coach (would be what LSU fans want) but has expressly stated lack of interest in defense, (see Mike Gundy).

P. J. Fleck? Too risky to hire him into his 1st Power 5 head coaching job.

So Coach O was the last, logical choice. Louisiana's own, keeps DC Dave Aranda, agrees to a lower salary, bumps up the salaries for coordinators and agrees to be the CEO and recruiting coordinator with an emphasis on recruiting Louisiana's own (a huge point of contention with Les losing Louisiana kids out-of-state). On paper the two current coordinators are among the best in the nation and especially Canada brings in a dramatically different offense than Les' 1970's Michigan one.

As an LSU fan I fear it can't work long term; currently it looks like they are among the best but neither Canada nor Aranda have a logical "tree" to go back to if/when they move onto head coaching or professional jobs. So if LSU is successful then logically we'll lose those coordinators and there isn't a logical succession plan in place. That's the risk with the current situation but all things considered I'm not sure there was a better decision to make.