Most everyone it seems is pulling for Ed Orgeron to make a go of this thing with LSU.

Yes, even those with no access to an honest bayou and no real interest about how the Tigers fare at least seem to be in Orgeron’s  corner.

I noticed it at SEC Media Days while talking to other writers from the South.

General consensus: It’s too good of a story not to wrap your arms around — a full-blooded, slightly indecipherable Cajun straight out of Hollywood central casting leading the goofy zaniness that surrounds LSU football.

The expectation from out-of-state feature writers is that Coach O may be out there whipping up alligator jambalaya amongst the looney tailgaters, and many were disappointed to learn that he swore off double-fisting longneck cold ones years ago.

What’s more, in all likelihood he will wear shoes on the sideline and probably won’t arrive from the swamp by pirogue (airboat, maybe).

He won’t have much time for duck season either.

Now, had he wandered into the LSU job when he got his first head coaching gig at Ole Miss, all of those delightful story lines might well have played out.

This is a different (and far wiser) Orgeron. The cliché lovers will have to settle for needing a translator for those quickie halftime interviews, and even the famed gravel-filled voice seems to be making subtle strides toward a semi-mainstream Southern accent.

There will be groans all around.

But make no mistake about it, LSU will be different.

Mainly, in going with Orgeron the program is trying a different business model.

That’s not necessarily bad.

LSU has spent most of the decade trying to out-Bama Alabama. How’d that work out?

Fat lot of good it did the Tigers. It’s pretty hard to outcoach Nick Saban, particularly head to head.

You could make the argument that LSU decided to quit beating its head against the crimson wall.

The Alabama model is pretty simple — Saban runs everything with an iron fist. The Tide have assistant coaches — and more “consultants” than any program in the country — but there’s no question who’s in charge. Even chin strap orders pass across his desk first. When you hear about a Bama coordinator, even a marquee name like Lane Kiffin, it’s usually for one of them drawing Saban’s ire.

LSU will be a little different.

Orgeron is in charge. He’s the head coach. He’ll have to make some critical decisions. It doesn’t hurt that he has few peers when it comes to recruiting.

But LSU will hang its future on having two rock star coordinators and giving them free will to do their magic.

It seems to be planned — Orgeron’s plan.

LSU made defensive coordinator Dave Aranda college football’s highest paid assistant at a $1.85 million average over the next three years.

When Matt Canada was added to Orgeron’s staff as offensive coordinator, his $1.5 million per year made him the third-highest paid assistant in the land.

Fun fact: former Tiger defensive coordinator John Chavis, who famously fled Baton Rouge for Texas A&M, is second. Moral of story: if you want to make the big bucks as an assistant, at least drop by LSU.

But surely LSU has the highest paid duo of coordinators.

Orgeron, on the other hand, is making $3.4 million as head coach. No pittance, for sure, but in the spend-happy SEC only four of the 14 head coaches will make less (it was three until Hugh Freeze made some ill-advised phone calls and was fired by Ole Miss).

There are some extra incentives built in for Orgeron.

That probably depends on the handiwork of the superstar coordinators.

It all starts to sound like Monopoly money after a while, but certainly the LSU plan was to spread those funds out more to assure the coaching tools are in place. And if we know anything about LSU’s spending habits, if this works Orgeron will soon have more than four SEC head coaches below his pay grade.

Of course, to maintain that success, you have to keep those two relatively young coordinators or pony up for replacements.

Money obviously won’t be the problem.

The whispers you hear — perhaps wishful thinking — are that neither Aranda nor Canada are obsessed with becoming head coaches.

With Aranda it almost seems plausible.

He doesn’t seem like the type who’d be enthralled with hobnobbing with alumni or regaling the media. He relaxes in his mad scientist lab, an evil genius cooking up diabolical defensive wizardry.

Canada is about to start his first season and is harder to get a read on.

But as much as the money, but with two X-and-O junkies like that, freedom to run their side of the ball will figure heavily in their peace of mind.

It doesn’t make Orgeron just a figurehead. Orgeron’s homegrown charisma assures he’ll get most of the air time — again, it’s too good of a story.

But he insists that if learned one thing at Ole Miss, it’s that he tried to do too much there.

He seems quite comfortable with this different approach. It’s worth a shot.

You’ll know it’s working if Orgeron, for all his charm, sometimes gets lost in the discussion as Aranda and Canada are the two most talked-about coordinators in the SEC.

 

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com