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The Athletic's Bruce Feldman is one of the most respected college football writers/reports in the business. Each year, Feldman does his rankings of the best coaches in the game. In May of 2020, Feldman put out his top 25 and had Nick Saban on top- no surprise there. Dabo Sweeney and James Franklin were second and third and LSU's Ed Orgeron was fourth.
Orgeron just won the national championship with one of the best offenses in college football history. People celebrated Coach O because he was everything the Bayou was proud of. His accent was lovable, his personality was infectious. Feldman wrote a book with Orgeron after that title season and all of college football was telling the story of the guy who went from a punchline to one of the game's best.
Jimbo Fisher got his $75M deal from Texas A&M and then finally put a season together in 2020 to justify the massive contract when the Aggies competed for a playoff spot. To celebrate last season, leadership in College Station-despite having seven years remaining on Fisher's original deal and no one coming after Fisher- extended him through 2031 and increased his pay to $9M per season.
Urban Meyer was a studio analyst for FOX Sports College Football and was actually pretty good at it. That didn't stop the rumors and wish list of fans at certain schools who wanted Meyer to take his leadership and coaching skills to their campus- see Florida State, Texas, USC.
Fast forward to today and all three find themselves in a very different position. Fisher has the least to worry about. While Texas A&M has gone from a team some thought could contend for a playoff spot and a preseason ranking of 6th to a 3-2 start and an 0-2 mark in the SEC. Fisher's team has remaining games with Alabama, Auburn and LSU. Jimbo lost his starting quarterback in Haynes King and Zach Calzada is not the same and the Aggies are struggling. So, whispers are getting louder about Fisher but his contract is big fat one with a massive buyout.
Speaking of Fisher and his massive contract, welcome to LSU and their AD Scott Woodward. Woodward didn't hire Ed Orgeron and the buzz is he is ready to make a change and bring in his own coach and Woodward is thinking big. Yahoo's Pete Thamel reports that Woodward may target Penn State's James Franklin and Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin and.....Jimbo Fisher. Woodward is a good friend of Fisher and he was the AD who gave Jimbo that $75M contract to come to Texas A&M. Just 15 games after going 15-0 and being celebrated across the college football world, most believe Coach O will not survive and it's inevitable that he will be replaced.
Urban Meyer spoke at length with Jimmy Johnson about taking the Texas job but chose instead to jump to the NFL and we know the mess he finds himself in today. It is becoming hard to see a path where Meyer stays on the job. He can't clean up his image in a matter of days and appears to have a locker room that has tuned him out. Meyer doesn't get the benefit of the doubt because of his troubles at Florida and Ohio State. But he won and won big at those places before his troubles became public. If the Jags lose to the Titans at home Sunday that stadium may be become ugly if the game is out of hand in the fourth quarter. Jags' owner Shad Khan will have to move on. Meyer has become bad for business.
That's how fast it can turn. Three coaches who had it good less than two years ago find themselves in spots that support has dwindled. Fisher is in the safest spot but would he actually bounce to LSU where his good friend would be willing to pay millions and millions to buyout one deal and pay another? Maybe. As for Orgeron and Meyer? The end is obvious and it ain't pretty.
Final thought: Urban Meyer was a 13th round draft pick as a shortstop by the Atlanta Braves in the 1982 Draft.