As the NCAA regular seasons winds down, fans who bet on college football online whose teams failed to live up to expectations console themselves by pondering on the NCAA betting odds of head coaches getting fired/hired. Cases in point, LSU Tigers interim head coach Ed ‘Coach O’ Orgeron, and Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong. Orgeron assumed the position four games into the season, after incumbent Les Miles was given his walking papers following a 2-2 start. The Tigers proceeded to win three straight and eventually finished with a 7-4 record (5-3 in SEC play).
Rumors abound in sportsball news outlets that LSU has set their sights on Houston Cougars’ head coach Tom Herman. As tends to be the case with rumors, both parties have denied having approached/being approached by the other. “Contrary to media reports, there has been no decision made on who will be the next football coach at LSU. We are going to take our time and make sure we select the right person to lead our football program,” the college said in a statement. Meanwhile, Houston athletic director Hunter Yurachek told the Houston Chronicle that he had “not been informed by Tom or his agent that they are in conversations with LSU.”
Louisiana State went 4-2 against the spread in its last six games, so people who bet on college football online at a sportsbook may or may not be satisfied with coach O’s work. Notwithstanding that, there is a group of people who are very pleased with Orgeron’s coaching, and who clamor for him to remain with the team, and they are LSU’s players. Following the Tigers’ season closing 54-39 win over the Texas A&M Aggies, LSU players chanted – and twitted about it – “keep Coach O” in the locker room. Then they presumably found a classroom so they could stand on the desks and say “Coach O Captain! My Captain!”
On the other hand, USA TODAY Sports writer Nate Scott believe that Orgeron “can’t remain the head coach at LSU” because “to be a successful college football coach right now… you don’t just need a brilliant football mind, you need to be a politician. You need to be a CEO.” At the very least, Orgeron has the O, but he still lacks the C and the E. Furthermore, “Orgeron is a football guy. He might be the football guy,” but “he couldn’t make it work” in “his one chance at a head coaching job” (in 2005-07 when he was the Ole Miss Rebels head coach).
Scott concludes that, if he were LSU, he would entrust his program to “someone who’s shown the ability to run an FCS program well.” Someone like Tom Herman. As it turns out, though, Herman is quite on demand these days. It has been reported by a few sources that the aforementioned Longhorns would be interested in Herman to take Strong’s place. Texas is 5-6 (3-5 in Big 12 play) pending the season closer that is to be played at the time of this writing. All things considered, however, fans who bet on college football online might be arguing about a moot point when it comes to Herman leaving the Cougars; the Chronicle reported that Yurachek has offered Herman a “seven-figure” raise.
