Interesting
full article... https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/09/02/tom-herman-texas-lsu-ed-orgeron
Kelly Orgeron returned from dinner with bad news for her husband. LSU had offered its head coaching job to Jimbo Fisher. "Everybody," she told Ed Orgeron, "was talking about it at dinner." This was Wednesday night, a day before LSU played at Texas A&M in what many thought would be Ed Orgeron's final game as coach of the Tigers. The Orgerons and more than 200 othersplayers, administrators, coaching staff, parentsspent that night in the team hotel. It was buzzing with talk of Fisher, a sort of long lost son for the Tigers. Fisher has in the past expressed his affection for LSU, where he served as offensive coordinator for seven years and has twice been seriously in the mix to be the Tigers head coach. He interviewed for the job to replace Nick Saban in 2005 and was the clear choice to potentially replace Miles in 2015.
Earlier in the day, just before the team took flight for College Station, Texas, a Baton Rouge radio host, Charles Hanagriff, had reported on air information that he thought at the time was public knowledge. "I had been told from somebody I trusted that if they would prepare an offer to Jimbo, he was willing to come," says Hanagriff, still a host on that radio station, ESPN 104.5 FM. By the time the team landed in Texas, the rumblings about Fisher had reached a fever pitch, so much so that Orgeron noticed pockets of players and staff members whispering and gesturing to their phones, none brave enough to tell the man in charge the news. Team meetings that night in the hotel were a mess. The swirling rumors were not only that Fisher was coming but that he planned to keep on staff LSU's current receivers coach, Dameyune Craig, one of Fisher's former quarterbacks at Auburn and a guy who now works for Fisher at Texas A&M. "There were guys on our staff talking about this and that and where these guys are going," says Orgeron. "They never said it in front of me, but you can tell it was going on."
Joe Alleva and others are here to set the record straight about Fisher. In 2016, Alleva had one phone call with Fisher's agent, Jimmy Sexton, early in the search process. They never spoke again. In the end, he was not a serious candidate, partly because of his price tag: $7.5 million a year over seven years, committee members say. New Orleans businessman Stephen Perry, a board member who served on that search committee, describes a "fateful moment" during the search when decision-makers agreed not to pursue Fisher. "We loved Jimbo and thought he was a great guy, but we felt like the program at Florida State was in a downward spiral. And what the agent was asking for" Perry says trailing off. Committee members told no one of this decision. In fact, they allowed the Fisher rumors to fester and even sometimes fueled it as a smokescreen to negotiate with their real candidate.
On Wednesday, a day before LSU played Texas A&M, reports from The Shreveport Times and ESPN about an offer to Fisher were wrong, committee members now say. Behind the scenes, school officials were in intense negotiations with Trace Armstrong, the agent of Herman. At some point that week, Alleva and committee members scheduled an interview in Houston for that Saturday morning with the coach. Through deep talks with Armstrong, the school had met Herman's requests, and a contract was readied. "We had numbers worked out with Tom," Alleva says. Some sources claim an offer was extended, and that Herman had verbally agreed. Alleva vehemently disputes that. The price for Herman was $5 million a year, Perry says. "We never had a deal, but we were both very seriously dancing," Alleva says.
full article... https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/09/02/tom-herman-texas-lsu-ed-orgeron
Kelly Orgeron returned from dinner with bad news for her husband. LSU had offered its head coaching job to Jimbo Fisher. "Everybody," she told Ed Orgeron, "was talking about it at dinner." This was Wednesday night, a day before LSU played at Texas A&M in what many thought would be Ed Orgeron's final game as coach of the Tigers. The Orgerons and more than 200 othersplayers, administrators, coaching staff, parentsspent that night in the team hotel. It was buzzing with talk of Fisher, a sort of long lost son for the Tigers. Fisher has in the past expressed his affection for LSU, where he served as offensive coordinator for seven years and has twice been seriously in the mix to be the Tigers head coach. He interviewed for the job to replace Nick Saban in 2005 and was the clear choice to potentially replace Miles in 2015.
Earlier in the day, just before the team took flight for College Station, Texas, a Baton Rouge radio host, Charles Hanagriff, had reported on air information that he thought at the time was public knowledge. "I had been told from somebody I trusted that if they would prepare an offer to Jimbo, he was willing to come," says Hanagriff, still a host on that radio station, ESPN 104.5 FM. By the time the team landed in Texas, the rumblings about Fisher had reached a fever pitch, so much so that Orgeron noticed pockets of players and staff members whispering and gesturing to their phones, none brave enough to tell the man in charge the news. Team meetings that night in the hotel were a mess. The swirling rumors were not only that Fisher was coming but that he planned to keep on staff LSU's current receivers coach, Dameyune Craig, one of Fisher's former quarterbacks at Auburn and a guy who now works for Fisher at Texas A&M. "There were guys on our staff talking about this and that and where these guys are going," says Orgeron. "They never said it in front of me, but you can tell it was going on."
Joe Alleva and others are here to set the record straight about Fisher. In 2016, Alleva had one phone call with Fisher's agent, Jimmy Sexton, early in the search process. They never spoke again. In the end, he was not a serious candidate, partly because of his price tag: $7.5 million a year over seven years, committee members say. New Orleans businessman Stephen Perry, a board member who served on that search committee, describes a "fateful moment" during the search when decision-makers agreed not to pursue Fisher. "We loved Jimbo and thought he was a great guy, but we felt like the program at Florida State was in a downward spiral. And what the agent was asking for" Perry says trailing off. Committee members told no one of this decision. In fact, they allowed the Fisher rumors to fester and even sometimes fueled it as a smokescreen to negotiate with their real candidate.
On Wednesday, a day before LSU played Texas A&M, reports from The Shreveport Times and ESPN about an offer to Fisher were wrong, committee members now say. Behind the scenes, school officials were in intense negotiations with Trace Armstrong, the agent of Herman. At some point that week, Alleva and committee members scheduled an interview in Houston for that Saturday morning with the coach. Through deep talks with Armstrong, the school had met Herman's requests, and a contract was readied. "We had numbers worked out with Tom," Alleva says. Some sources claim an offer was extended, and that Herman had verbally agreed. Alleva vehemently disputes that. The price for Herman was $5 million a year, Perry says. "We never had a deal, but we were both very seriously dancing," Alleva says.
I will never understand how someone can tell so many lies and not feel bad about it...