LSU hopes to find replacement quickly
BATON ROUGE, La. – Two or three interviews of potential new Louisiana State football coaches are planned for this week with athletic director Skip Bertman, according to Stewart Slack, chairman of the LSU board of supervisors.
“Skip Bertman wanted to be prepared in the event that Nick (Saban) made the decision to go to Miami, and so in the last three or four days he’s lined up some things,” Slack said Sunday night.
LSU officials are not yet revealing any names of interviewees, but among the possible candidates are former Cleveland Browns coach Butch Davis, Bobby Petrino of Louisville, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, California’s Jeff Tedford, Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech’s Mike Leach, Boise State’s Dan Hawkins, Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Nolan, Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Brad Childress and LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher.
“I think the fans would be surprised at how much work has been done already,” said Bertman, who described his working list as “long” and with “huge” names.
Saban announced he was leaving LSU on Saturday to coach the Miami Dolphins of the NFL. LSU began preliminary work for his possible departure days after his first interview with the Dolphins on Dec. 14 and has hired a search firm to assist them. Bertman has also talked to Saban and Saban’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, about potential candidates.
Bertman is leading the search with the assistance of Slack, Charles Weems, who is the chairman of the board’s athletic committee, and Richard Gill of the Tiger Athletic Foundation. Weems and Gill were instrumental five years ago in hiring Saban from Michigan State.
Saban, the No. 1 paid college coach in the country, had six years remaining on an $18 million, seven-year contract.
LSU will have more to offer during this search besides a top salary. An impressive football operations center for the new coaching staff is expected to open in August. LSU loses fewer than 10 seniors who had significant roles on the 2004 team that finished the regular season 9-2 and plays Iowa in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1. Saban had the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation according to various polls in 2004, 2003 and 2001, and he proved that LSU can win a national championship last season.
“I have to tell you, I think it’s the No. 1 coaching job in college football,” Slack said. “I think most other people would certainly put it in the top five. And I give Nick a ton of credit for that. Here’s a guy that made this one of the most desirable positions in college football.”
LSU is starting its search late, however. Coaching searches following the 2004 regular season at Florida, Notre Dame, Washington and Mississippi, among others, have long been over.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of great people interested in this one that might not have even surfaced in some of these other searches that have gone on of late,” Slack said. “I’m very comfortable that we’re going to have great people to go to. I would guess that there are probably some that are not the traditional sort of names you might have heard that are being looked at by the search firm. Obviously, some people have commitments and are at places that they don’t want to change, but I don’t think that any name is not going to be considered.”
Bertman said he’d prefer to have a coach hired by Jan. 2, and at the latest by Jan. 12, which is about three weeks before the Feb. 6 national signing day.