Kirk Herbstreit names best open job in college football

College football analyst Kirk Herbstreit evaluates which current open college football job is the best right now

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day talks to Kirk Herbstreit / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

College football analyst Kirk Herbstreit joined the Ryen Russillo Podcast on Monday to discuss a swath of topics. That includes, of course, a totally unhinged coaching carousel that only stands to ramp even further up as the regular season draws to a close.

For the third weekend in a row, an SEC head football coach did not survive the weekend. Billy Napier got the axe from Florida after beating Mississippi State two weeks ago, then Brian Kelly fell on the proverbial sword last weekend after LSU's loss to Texas A&M. Then, this past week, Auburn's Hugh Freeze was let go following a loss at home against a Kentucky team that hadn't won an SEC game since last October. We have those three plus Penn State as the obvious top tier of open jobs right now.

So, the popular question of the last week has been: Which of those jobs is best? When Ryen Russillo asked him point blank, Herbstreit answered that it all comes down to recruiting pipelines:

“I think LSU’s the best job and I think it is because you’re LSU in the state of Louisiana," he asserted. "You have competition with nobody in the state. So you’re recruiting Baton Rouge, New Oreleans, Lafayette, everywhere."

Louisiana is talent-drenched and with just one SEC powerhouse in LSU, whereas Florida has to compete with Miami and Florida State, while Auburn obviously has Alabama right there. But in the Bayou, every young football player shares the same dream.

"Everyone who grows up in that state wants to play for the purple and gold," Herbstreit added. "They want to play at LSU. So you have an embarrassment of riches in your own state." Those riches produced natinal champions three times this century with three different coaches, so you can tell, success is as much about Louisiana and the program as it is any coach.

"I think LSU because there’s no competition for the recruits and there’s big-time support," Herbstreit emphasized. "So I would lean towards LSU. Of the available jobs, I think LSU is the best job.”

LSU has certainly been the majority vote-getter in the best open job race, although Urban Meyer respectfully disagreed. The bigger question now is: Will LSU's top candidates leave the jobs they're at to take on higher expectations in Baton Rouge? Kirk Herbstreit wasn't so sure about that.

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