Coaches on the hot seat in Week 6 | College Football Enquirer
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss which coaches’ seats are getting warmer and debate why LSU’s Ed Orgeron, Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher, and Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst have a lot to prove going forward.
Video Transcript
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DAN WETZEL: Pete, what do you think is next at LSU. I mean, is he going to survive this year? And I ask you that knowing that you don't know what's going to happen, obviously, wins and losses.
PETE THAMEL: Sure. I was at LSU for the Auburn game on Saturday night and you could sense the frustration in the stadium for an offensive system that just isn't working, hasn't worked, can't get a snap off, burnt timeouts. Like, there is just an undercurrent of frustration there.
And, you know, I just don't see a path out of this for Ed Orgeron. But I don't think if this decision is close come the end of the season there's going to be a lot of sentimentality toward Ed Orgeron. Because what you're going to do is, once you fire a set of coordinators and you hire new ones, eventually you got to point the finger at the coach. We talked about this a little bit with Clay Helton earlier in the year. And the finger is being pointed at Orgeron. And there's almost an air of inevitability that this thing is going to continue to unwind at LSU. I don't see a lot of paths out.
PAT FORDE: You know, I mean, it may well end up that way, but right now they're 3-2 with, in my mind, five toss-up games remaining, OK? You're not going to beat Alabama. You are going to beat Louisiana-Monroe. So you're 4-3. And then you've got five toss-ups-- Kentucky, Florida in Baton Rouge, at Mississippi, Arkansas, A&M.
What if they win all five? Means 9-3. You're going to fire Ed Orgeron at 9-3 if you've won that many games against ranked teams? Maybe they won't win that many, but until the cake bakes a little bit more I have a hard time getting to the point of like, oh, it's over. They're not good, they're not a good team, but I think until we get through the next three games it's still very much TBD to me.
DAN WETZEL: He better turn it around now.
PETE THAMEL: Yes.
DAN WETZEL: So, yeah, I agree. If he goes 6-1 the rest away, sure. Let's move a little bit to the West. Now they cannot fire Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M because he is currently under contract through 2031. I mean, this team just doesn't look good at all and, you know, this was supposed to be the big year. I don't think they're going to finish last in the SEC West. I think they're going to get something going, but there shouldn't be too much talent for this, isn't that correct, Pat.
PAT FORDE: Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, they lost a bunch of dudes from last year's 9-1 team, including a four-year starting quarterback, but the entire vibe from A&M was, now we've got this thing built to the point where, you know, that's going to be the norm now. We're going to be at worst the second best team in the West and we aspire to be the best team in the West.
And that's not the case. I mean, they are a bad team so far. And you've got Alabama coming up. Now, after Alabama, you, again-- this is the thing, is we're going to see what the pecking order is really going to shake out to be in the West, because I think everybody's going to lose multiple games probably. When A&M, LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas and Mississippi all start playing each other. Everybody's going to lose to Alabama and then they're just going to take turns knocking each other off, which is going to drive down. It'll be a competitive but muddled division after the Crimson Tide. So, you know, this is not what we were figuring they were going to pay $93 million for Jimbo.
PETE THAMEL: I mean, they finished fifth last year. Like, that's like not terrible. They have certainly regressed. I maybe have given him more of a mental mulligan because the drop off in quarterback. I can understand a little bit of discontent with this season. I mean, this week was supposed to be Texas A&M's big moment. This was supposed to be what they were building for as a program.
And they are kind of an afterthought this weekend when it all comes down to it and people aren't giving them too much of a chance against Alabama. I mean, it's Jimbo's deal, it's Jimbo's quarterback deal, it's Jimbo's recruits, and that has not come to fruition.
DAN WETZEL: One thing-- it will be a great crowd, but if you want to see a crowd turn it's when people have paid an enormous amount of money for the hot ticket.
Yes, all right. Let's get to one more. What does Paul Chryst got to do to get this thing back in order?
PAT FORDE: My God, you got to find some quarterback play. I mean, in a conference that is pretty underwhelming in terms of passing the ball, they're like the worst. They have the lowest efficiency rating, they have thrown three touchdown passes and eight interceptions.
PETE THAMEL: Oh.
PAT FORDE: Yeah. When their quarterbacks aren't throwing picks they're fumbling. You can't just coach a guy up to all of a sudden make him better, and we all thought Graham Mertz was going to be better but he's not. He is who he is at this point, and what he is is not very good. And they gave his backup Chase Wolfe a shot and he was not very good. So, you know, you can still salvage a winning record out of this season, but holy moly they have had as bad a four weeks as any highly-touted team in the country in, really, any team I can remember in a while.
PETE THAMEL: They are a point of attack program. And when they are not dominating the point of attack on offense they have no chance, and right now they have no chance. What you can't do is the definition of insanity and keep trotting out the same quarterback and the same system and hoping for different results.
