LSU President Discusses Firing Les Miles, Ed Orgeron As Permanent Head Coach

On Wednesday, LSU president F. King Alexander talked with The Advocate to discuss the firing of Les Miles last week.

Alexander notably said the team opted to fire him early in the year rather than wait until the offseason in order to give interim coach Ed Orgeron a chance to turn things around and get back into contention.

“There was a degree of demoralization that our student-athletes were showing. We just weren’t getting better,” Alexander said. “It was clear that our student-athletes had their concerns, not to mention the fans, not to mention the concerns that kind of spread from last year. (We were told) things would change. And they pretty much stayed the same. We wanted to give our student-athletes and students the opportunity to salvage this year.”

The school’s president also said that Orgeron would be given a very good chance to win the permanent head coaching job, saying he will have “as much of a chance as anybody.”

Much of the fanbase would love to see Orgeron step into that full-time role to lead the Tigers, and if he can win a few games down the stretch here, it sounds like he’ll be given a fair shot long-term.

He also made some interesting comments regarding the potential outside candidates for the position. Obviously, LSU will get to interview some of the top coaches in the nation, but Alexander’s choice of words in saying so was rather strange.

“Knowing what other institutions have … I think some of the best, most talented young coaches would crawl on their hands and knees to come to LSU.”

LSU’s coaching search will certainly be an interesting one, and with the prestige of the coach they decided to fire, they absolutely have to get this one right. If Orgeron wins out, he deserves to continue to lead this team, but if not, expect the Tigers to get the best coach available.