From Tiger Bait to click bait

Published 7:38 am Wednesday, October 5, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Did you know that all Ed Orgeron has to do is beat Alabama and suddenly that dream LSU job is his?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Me either.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But I read it right there on the internet so …</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">OK, bad confirmation.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it’s just more proof that LSU fans had better buckle down for these final seven games of the regular season.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s only just begun, and it’s going to get crazier yet. Invest in a good, solid B.S. detector. Keep several grains of salt at your beck and call. Beware of strangers and look twice before crossing the street.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s also another feather in the dearly departed Les Miles’ Mad Hat that the LSU football job he left behind is now big enough news to attract “Entertainment Tonight”-style journalism.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The simple Alabama carrot for Coach B?B? is just another example.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The story was broken by Chris Lowe of ESPN.com, although I’m sure that Lowe, being a very respected journalist, didn’t realize it. Or, for that matter, did he intend it?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Lowe knows Orgeron well. He was at Saturday’s LSU-Missouri game for Orgeron’s dazzling debut and also spent some time with him Sunday.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">During that Sunday chat, Orgeron wasn’t backing down in his unapologetic pitch to get the job full-time.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The gist of the story, best I could tell, was Orgeron’s assumption that he’s being given a fair chance to win over the selection committee.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“If we do what we need to do, I feel in my heart I’m going to get it,” Orgeron told Lowe. “If I don’t, it’s because we didn’t do well enough and I don’t deserve it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Really, we control our own destiny, and I feel like we have a job here, and we have a right to earn it. If we earn it, we ought to get it. If we don’t earn it, I get that.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">There was a little more.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Toward the bottom of the story, almost a throwaway line, another source told Lowe that “If they beat Alabama, they might sign him to a new contract before midnight.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Fair enough, particularly given LSU fans’ obsession these days with beating Nick Saban.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It was kind of cute actually.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Whoever the source was, you could almost hear the chuckle in his quote, perhaps facetiously.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But you know how in a small town the whispers get better with every retelling. You know, how Grandma Mable is seen heading into the doctor’s office for her routine six-month checkup and, by the time the tale gets to the other end of Main Street, she’s on her death bed or pregnant or both.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The online warriors wasted little time with the ESPN story.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">By the time it got passed around a few times, some SEC-centric website named Saturday Down South got a hold of it and, in the retelling, teased it on Twitter under the following fetching headline:</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Report: LSU ready to hand job to Orgeron if he beats Alabama.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Really? Guess I missed that part.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">In the trade of online journalism, this is known as “click bait,” and it basically turns “journalists” into carnival barkers trying to sucker in more “hits” and “views” and “follows.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Never mind that the quote — even in its context of playful exaggeration — said “might” not “ready to.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It obviously appeals to the knee-jerk clickability of LSU fans, while Alabama fans get another chance to confirm that they’re the center of the college football universe.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">And it’s only the beginning.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But what of the Alabama factor?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Forget the absurdity of having one game decide Orgeron’s fate.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Let’s say Orgeron goes 7-1 from here on out and the lone loss is to Alabama. Does that keep him from getting the job?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It better not.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If that’s the standard, then whoever the next coach is will have to beat Alabama next year or get fired immediately afterward.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Listen, we’re one game into what one LSU source told me was an honest, eight-game audition.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So just let the noble Cajun experiment play out. You can’t rush it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Given that the scary parts of LSU’s schedule are still ahead, I would say 7-1 makes it impossible for them to tell him no, and 6-2 means they’ve got some explaining to do if he’s not getting the job. Given the way LSU played in its four games pre-Orgeron, 5-3 would be pretty impressive.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But it’s probably wrong to try to put a finite number on it.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Orgeron made everyone in Tiger Stadium lean forward in their seats against Missouri.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">True, Missouri isn’t a very good team and it probably didn’t matter what team showed up in Saturday’s atmosphere. What happened was going to happen.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The innovative play calling was only a part of it. Orgeron did a masterful job of changing a lot about the preparation, staff organization and attitude of the program in a short week.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU looked like a team with a lot more talent overwhelming a lesser opponent — which is the way LSU should look in a game like that.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But forget numbers, forget targeted rivals.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Exercise a little patience and let’s just see how LSU looks and plays once the newness of this different voice wears off.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Meanwhile, beware of the internet. Don’t become click bait.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AZaphdingbatdot7pt">l</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Scooter Hobbs</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">covers LSU</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">athletics. Email him at</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">shobbs@americanpress.com</span>