LSU coaching search: ESPN's Heather Dinich questions why any top coach would take on 'dysfunctional situation' with Tigers

Following its firing of head coach Brian Kelly last Sunday afternoon, LSU became the best head coaching job on the market. Or, so many thought.

Kelly’s firing set off a chain reaction, which resulted in Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry getting involved and barring Athletic Director Scott Woodward from leading yet another coaching search. This led to Woodward and the University parting ways, leaving a vacancy for the football head coach and athletic director.

As LSU searches for its next head coach, ESPN‘s Heather Dinich went scorched earth on the program during Friday morning’s edition of ‘Get Up.’ In short, Dinich questioned why any high-profile coach would take on a ‘dysfunctional situation’ with the Tigers.

“If I’m Lane Kiffin or any other coaching candidate in the country right now, why on God’s green earth would I want to walk into this dysfunctional situation?” Dinich asked. “The only thing more embarrassing than firing your head coach before November and having to pay him $50 million is having your Governor insert himself into this conversation.

“So, when we heard athletic department officials this morning say they’d like to hire a new head coach with ties to the state of Louisiana, that makes perfect sense for many reasons. But most of all, it’s because I don’t know why anyone outside of that state would want to step foot into that department at this time.”

Joel Klatt predicts that Lane Kiffin will make jump to LSU

The ‘will he or won’t he’ situation surrounding Lane Kiffin grows by the day. As Ole Miss continues its march to what could be its first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff, the noise that links Kiffin to the LSU opening continues to get louder and louder. FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt even predicted on Wednesday’s edition of ‘The Herd with Colin Cowherd’ that Kiffin would, in fact, take the LSU job.

“LSU is intriguing,” Klatt said. “I just think LSU is a step above. I think you have to overachieve at Ole Miss and you’ve got to do things that the program has never done to reach your goals and win at the top end of college football. In a lot of respects, the best years of Ole Miss football (at least in recent vintage), is what we’re seeing right now. Does he want better than that and go to LSU? We know that LSU can go and put together rosters year in and year out.”

“They compete not only at the top end of the SEC, but also in the country and win a National Championship. I do think it comes down to resources and like I said, I think LSU has top two or three resources financially in college football. I know a couple of their boosters. They have deep, deep pockets and in this day and age, that’s what you have to have. I think Lane will (leave). If I had to bet, Lane Kiffin is your next coach at LSU.”

With the Rebels potentially playing into early to mid-January, that makes hiring Kiffin much more difficult. If he isn’t the hire, Notre Dame‘s Marcus Freeman, Louisville‘s Jeff Brohm and Tulane‘s Jon Sumrall have also been floated as potential fits. Whether or not any of these coaches would want to leave their programs for LSU, which seems to be in a state of limbo right now, is still up for debate.