Ed Orgeron introduced as interim LSU Head Coach | FULL PRESSER
By: Nina Mandell| November 25, 2016 10:09 amFollow @ninamandell
Earlier this week as rumors swirled about the security of Texas coach Charlie Strongs job, WNBA player and Texas alumni Imani Boyette noticed something strange in her husband, defensive lineman Paul Boyette as he praised his coach in interviews.
He was crying.
Ive been with this man 5 years and only seen him cry 3x, she wrote, adding an emoji with a tear.
On Thursday, as the rest of us were scarfing down turkey, it was LSU players turns to rally around Ed Orgeron, their interim coach who stepped in to lead the team after Les Miles was fired earlier this year.
Duke Riley, a senior, posted a video of of the team chanting Keep Coach O after the Tigers win over Texas A&M.
He added on Twitter:
Ugly win, but a win is a win!! Keep Coach O!!!!! Please!!! Keep Coach O!! He keeps us going he keeps us fighting!!
Duke Riley (@1Goal1Dream) November 25, 2016
The chants came after swirl of reports that popped up in the middle of the game that rumored that Houstons Tom Herman was close to being named the new coach at LSU, a move that wouldnt be surprising and as my colleague Nate Scott wrote earlier, would replace someone who isnt really going to make it as the head coach of the Tigers. But the display of support for the coaches who are on the hot seat speaks to one of the essential problems in college athletics: Its a business.
Coaches are judged on win-loss records, on their ability to brighten the future of the program not as much on their ability to impact their players life.
But these recent images of players standing up for their coaches and telling us all what they mean to them should remind us of something more: Its a business that involves the lives of a bunch of college kids who look to coaches as mentors, even as father figures sometimes.
It goes both ways of course the hard part of players doesnt just come when coaches are fired, it also hurts when theyleave programs for a better job. In 2014, I spoke to one former player about what it was like for him when Mack Brown left North Carolina to go to Texas:
Mack was a guy who recruited me, he remembered. He got me to come there. I believed in everything he was saying. He was a really good guy. He was more of a father figure to all of us so when he left it hurt it really hurt. We never expected it to happen we were told hes going to be there forever and then he actually leaves.
This isnt a plea for the coaching carousel to end, or for schools to not look for the best person to lead their programs or even coaches to do what they have to do and should do for their families and their own careers. College football is long past holding onto something more than that.
But watching the videos of the LSU players from last night, its hard to not feel for the people at the center of the whirlwind.
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