Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram debate where LSU ranks among open coaching jobs

Multiple jobs big-time college football jobs have begin to open up around the country, and LSU is just the latest. The Tigers made the decision to fire Brian Kelly on Sunday in the middle of his fourth season at the helm, throwing itself in the race to land the next big candidate.

With other programs such as Penn State and Florida already have also fired their coaches, that launched an interesting discussion between Urban Meyer and Mark Ingram on Tuesday’s episode of The Triple Option. Meyer posed the question to Ingram as to where the LSU program ranks among SEC jobs.

“Let me throw you this, Mark, because you lived in New Orleans and obviously played in the SEC,” he said. “I coached in the SEC. What kind of job is LSU? Top three?”

Ingram, who played at Alabama, hesistated at first. But after some more prodding from Meyer, he named three schools off the top of his head that he would put over LSU in the SEC.

“LSU is a top job in the country,” he said. “In the SEC you got Texas, you got Georgia, you got ‘Bama. I’m just saying jobs that are probably better than LSU.”

Co-host Rob Stone also threw out Florida, to which Ingram agreed. The former running back then explained what he saw about the LSU program during his time playing in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints.

He had high praise for the Tigers’ place among college football’s top programs. Even though, they might still be behind some other SEC programs, he still considers them to be a top job in the country.

“LSU is a premier program and a premier destination,” he said. “They’re a hotbed for talent and they’ve got the support. When I tell you that they’re the fabric and the DNA of that state, I went to play for the Saints, bro, and they hated me because I came from Alabama. So I had to earn the love and earn the respect of Who Dat nation because I played for Bama. So the DNA and the fabric of LSU is there. The support, the history, the program. LSU is one of the premier programs in the country.”

Since 2003, LSU has won three national championships under three different coaches. It has had no trouble attracting the best of the best to Baton Rouge, and that shouldn’t change with this opening.