CLEVELAND, Ohio — When LSU fired Brian Kelly on Sunday evening, they didn’t just end one coaching tenure – they fundamentally altered the entire college football coaching market for the 2024 carousel.
According to a recent episode of Josh Pate’s college football show, the sudden availability of the LSU job has created seismic ripples throughout the sport, with programs like Florida feeling the most immediate impact.
“This is going to be the coaching search that every other coaching search works downstream of,” Pate said. “I cannot imagine the people at Florida tonight. I cannot imagine the fists pounding the table in Gainesville. The Florida job’s a good job, too. I’m just saying the last thing on this planet those people wanted was to see LSU pull the trigger when they did.”
The timing couldn’t be worse for the Gators, who now face the prospect of competing against one of college football’s premier destinations for coaching talent.
While Florida offers an excellent opportunity in its own right, the podcast host made it clear that LSU occupies rarefied air in the coaching market.
“Some would argue it’s the best job in the sport,” Pate said. “If you don’t believe that, it’s a top five job in the sport. The right person would view it as the best job in the country. Pretty much any coach would view it as a top five job.”
This competitive advantage means Florida and other programs with coaching vacancies must now contend with LSU’s considerable gravitational pull on the market.
Top candidates who might have seriously considered the Florida job may now wait to see if LSU comes calling – forcing the Gators to either rush their process or potentially settle for secondary options.
However, Pate also highlighted a potential complicating factor that could level the playing field: LSU’s internal organizational challenges.
After two high-profile coaching failures in Brian Kelly and Jimbo Fisher (the latter at Texas A&M under the same athletic director), questions exist about the administrative structure in Baton Rouge.
“I don’t know how you don’t look at Scott Woodward right now. Scott Woodward was responsible for the Jimbo Fischer fiasco at Texas A&M,” Pate explained. “He’s now got the Brian Kelly disaster in his lap. I mean, they’ve had critical financial issues down there in part because of Scott Woodward.”
These concerns could give elite coaching candidates pause before jumping at the LSU opportunity. As Pate explained: “If I’m a premier head coach, you got to convince me you’ve got your affairs in order… I’m not competing against them with one hand tied behind my back.”
The situation creates a fascinating dynamic for the coaching market.
While LSU undeniably offers the higher-profile position, Florida might be able to position itself as the more stable, better-organized destination – particularly if LSU doesn’t address its administrative challenges.
For now, the Tigers appear poised to pivot dramatically from the Kelly era, possibly turning to Frank Wilson as interim coach. He’s someone who “loves LSU” according to Pate, representing “a radical departure from what the norm was” under Kelly.
As both programs enter the market, one thing is clear: LSU’s sudden availability has completely reshaped the coaching landscape, creating what promises to be one of the most competitive and consequential hiring cycles in recent college football history.
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