I think Saban is a great coach, and his hire was one of the red letter days in the history of LSU football. BUT He took over a bad football team that was not very talented and didn't believe in it self. He lost an average of three games per season. I think the new coach will have a better win-loss record after five years, because: 1. We will get a proven top coach to take over. 2. We are one of the most talented teams in the country going into next season. 3. They might move to a permanent twelve game season. I don't think we'll win another national championship in the next five years, but I think we have a better than average chance of winning another SEC Championship soon. Of course, this all depends on how well the next coach performs. Thank you Nick for bringing LSU football to its highest position as a program in its history. Good luck. I am now a Dolphins fan when they are not playing the Saints. Considering that you wanted to take the Dolphins' job, I think you handled the situation well. There will always be these negative people ready to jump on Saban. I think that you are misguided. There is an old Chinese saying that goes, "May you live in interesting times." These will certainly be interesting times for LSU football fans. I think that who is hired, how he finishes this recruiting class, and how he does with the veteran, talented team that he inherits next year will tell us alot about the future of LSU football in the next twelve months. If we hire the wrong person, we could certainly sink back to where we were over the next few years. Though, I don't expect that to happen. It should not be difficult to finish with a top ten recruiting class, and if we are successful next season, he should be able to recruit well for 2006. I think we might lose Farr, Anderson, and Keys. Perrilloux and Harris may look in another direction, but this all depends on who we hire. The good thing is that the coaches and team are out of Baton Rouge for most of the rest of the dead period. Skip's committee can pick a coach and that coach can decide on most of his staff before the dead period is over, so we can hit the ground running on January 5th. I think the smart money is on Butch Davis to be the next coach unless he makes a definitive statement that he is not interested. There are big questions about Butch, but there are big questions about whoever we bring in. I will take a guy who could recruit the most talented team in the history of college football; has been a successful head coach in college football; and, a successful NFL coordinator. He didn't work out as an NFL head coach but neither did Spurrier and does anyone doubt that he is a great college head coach.
