If Bob Stoops rejects FSU, then maybe Odell Haggins could become Seminoles' Ed Orgeron.
NORLANDO, Fla. o doubt about it, Bob Stoops would be a home-run hire for Florida State and immediately generate a splash, a buzz and a national hoo-ha around a down-andout football program.
In contrast, Odell Haggins would be the complete opposite of a home-run hire. He would be considered a strikeout, and the Seminoles would be ridiculed nationally for promoting their interim coach and being unable to land a candidate who has pizzazz and panache.
Just so you know, if it were to happen and the Seminoles were somehow to promote Haggins to permanent head coach, I will definitely NOT be one of those who pans the hire. In fact, I will applaud it. Why?
Two words: Ed Orgeron. When LSU ended up making the unsexy, nonsplashy hire of promoting Orgeron from defensive line coach to interim head coach to permanent head coach, I was one of the many cackling cacophony of critics who lampooned the hire and used Orgeron as a punchline.
“Can you believe it?” I said at the time. “LSU fired Les Miles, its winningest coach of all-time, to hire the Cookie Monster? … LSU wanted to hire Jimbo Fisher as its next head coach. Then LSU wanted to hire Tom Herman as its next head coach. And ultimately the Tigers ended up with — stop laughing! — Ed Orgeron. In other words, LSU's clownish AD Joe Alleva was shooting for the stars and ended up with a smoldering hunk of meteorite.”
Ed Orgeron, that smoldering hunk of meteorite, now has LSU ranked No. 1 in the nation and has become America's most beloved college football coach.
As that noted college football commentator Garth Brooks once said, “Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
I'm not saying Haggins would become the next Orgeron, but there are certainly similarities. Just as LSU was Orgeron's dream job, FSU is Haggins' dream job. Both played defensive line at their respective schools, and both became defensive line coaches and interim head coaches at their respective schools. And both are beloved by their players.
It's no secret that several current and former FSU players adamantly want to see Haggins get the job and are campaigning for it on social medial by tweeting out support with hashtags such as #HireOdell and #OdellForHC.
“The best man for the job (is) already in Tallahassee,” redshirt junior defensive tackle Cedric Wood tweeted.
“FSU absolutely needs to give serious consideration to keeping Odell Haggins on as head coach,” tweeted Danny Kanell, a national radio host and former FSU quarterbacking great. “I hope he gets the opportunity to make his case.”
Clearly, it goes without saying that the Seminoles should do everything in their power to pursue and lock down Bob Stoops, the former Oklahoma coach. If you have a chance to hire a coach of Stoops' stature, you do it. All I'm saying is if you can't land Stoops, it might be a better option to promote an interim coach who is familiar with the program rather than rolling the dice on a head coach at another program (see Willie Taggart).
If you don't believe me, then check the latest college football rankings, where the top three teams — LSU (Orgeron), Ohio State (Ryan Day) and Clemson (Dabo Swinney) — promoted their interim head coach to permanent head coach. Swinney was a little-known wide receivers coach when Clemson promoted him, and he has gone on to become the most coveted and charismatic coach in college football.
As for Haggins, he knows the FSU program inside and out. He was an AllAmerica defensive tackle for Bobby Bowden and has been an assistant coach at the school for 26 years under three different head coaches — Bowden, Fisher and Taggart. He knows how to recruit the state of Florida, and his hiring would allow FSU to maintain some semblance of stability and retain some of Taggart's better assistant coaches and recruiters.
He also has two other qualities that some of the other candidates don't have: He's cheap and available. For an in-debt FSU athletic department that is hemorrhaging money and was forced to buy out Taggart for about $18 million, Haggins would take the job for half the salary of most other candidates.
Obviously, FSU would love to go into next season fielding a team comprised of Stoops' Troops.
But if not, it might not be a bad idea for Seminole Nation to hire Haggins and rally around the mantra, “Give 'em hell, Odell!”