Head coach Ed Orgeron will be departing from LSU following the 2021 season. This comes just two years after winning the College Football Playoff Championship over Clemson. His leaving has left a high-profile opening, but one rival coach removed his name from any further speculation on Tuesday.
Clemson Tigers head football coach Dabo Swinney stated to the media that he has no interest in the LSU coaching vacancy. He even joked that he was surprised to be considered “a big-time coach.”
“This is the only Death Valley I’m concerned with right here,” Swinney said, referring to the stadiums in Clemson and Baton Rouge, which are both nicknamed “Death Valley.”
“I don’t know the situation [with Orgeron at LSU],” Swinney said when asked about the pressure to win immediately and consistently, “but I do know some of the greatest coaches we’ve ever had weren’t good early or maybe the consistency wasn’t there. It’s a tough business.”
Swinney has long been thought of as a possible Nick Saban successor at Alabama, which is his alma mater. He has always stated that he has no interest in leaving Clemson, where he has been an assistant coach and head coach for the past eighteen years, since 2003.
Clemson has a 4-2 record and has yet to score more than 19 points against a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent this season. The Tigers have won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and made the College Football Playoffs in each of the past six seasons. They have been victorious in at least ten games in every season since 2011.
“Maybe the Clemson people have more appreciation for it now,” Swinney said. “It’s hard to win.”
Swinney is the second high-profile coach in the last 48 hours to put rumors to rest regarding the LSU vacancy. Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher stated his happiness being with the Aggies on Monday.
“I love being here,” Fisher told the media. “This is the job I wanted, I got a great contract, I have an unbelievable chancellor, unbelievable president, unbelievable AD. We’re building something.”
Orgeron will complete the 2021 season with LSU before leaving the program. He tallied a 49–17 record with the Tigers, though Orgeron is just 9–8 since the start of the 2020 season.
