LSU Tigers

If The LSU Tigers Wants Tom Herman, He's Theirs

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

When the LSU Tigers made the decision to fire head coach Les Miles after some early-season struggles, the media and fans expected to see a high-profile, heavily covered coaching search after the season, one that would result in a lot of money being thrown at one of the nation’s top candidates.

Names like Lane Kiffin, Art Briles, and Charlie Strong were mentioned in the days following the firing, but the one we heard the most was Houston Cougars head coach Tom Herman. From the very beginning, he appeared to be atop the list of both the program and every member of Tiger Nation.

The problem was, many did not think that the team had much hope at all of bringing him to Baton Rouge. LSU is one of the best jobs in all of college football, but at the time, it looked as though Herman was building something pretty special down in Houston. His team already had a huge victory over Oklahoma, and a move to the Big 12 Conference was rumored to be likely.

His Cougars were rolling, and the move to one of the Power Five conferences would have bolstered the prestige of his program and gotten him quite the pay raise. Everything was looking up, and prying him away was going to be an incredible challenge.

But just a mere three-or-so weeks later, it appears that if LSU does, in fact, want Tom Herman as the next head coach of the Tigers, they could very easily make it happen.

At 5-0 through five weeks, everything was great for the Cougars. Then, Herman’s team suffered a brutal loss to Navy that dropped them a few spots in the rankings. Houston came out the next week looking to prove to the country that they were the team we thought they were, but they struggled in a close win against Tulsa at home.

Their struggles sparked a debate on whether or not Herman would indeed remain in Houston, but consensus was that he would stay with the Cougars and continue building on the foundation he had laid.

Then, earlier this week, the Big 12 came out and announced that the conference would not expand after all, meaning Houston’s only real opportunity to move into a Power Five conference was gone. The potential to leave the AAC was really one of the only things keeping Herman in the program, and with that gone, all bets are off.

With interim head coach Ed Orgeron currently doing a fantastic job, the LSU Tigers may not even have a coaching search if the team wins down the stretch. But if they do opt to hire an outside guy to be the team’s next head coach, Tom Herman is, in my opinion, an easy get for the program if they want him. He has no real incentive to stay in Houston, and if a team like LSU comes calling, I just can’t see him turning it down.