Does Coach O’s 2017 = Kirby Smart’s 2016?

I generally like Steven Godfrey’s work, but this strikes me as a little too superficial.

Or, maybe, 2017 LSU is a version of another program that replaced another tenured, consistent head coach who was often great but unable to surpass Alabama: Georgia and Kirby Smart.

Um… nah.  He even rebuts his proposition with a quote in the same piece from an unnamed SEC assistant coach.

“The difference is, Orgeron has had more time than Smart, with the interim year, and the big thing is that expectations were way out of line. O sold LSU on immediate consistency, not a rebuild. That’s where a lot of the anger is coming from. He’s got really good coaches. He’s going to recruit really well. His biggest mistake is hiding how much work their (sic) was. But maybe he thought he wouldn’t get hired for a rebuild.”

Smart’s flaws last season were the result of a first-time head coach going through a phase of on the job training.  Orgeron, by contrast, is on his third head coaching gig, his second in the SEC.  Beyond that, he’s a promoted interim head coach, which means the usual arguments about getting acclimated to the personnel and culture change issues don’t apply as they did at Georgia last season.  The learning curve at LSU should already be kicking in; that it isn’t is a pretty good indicator that the Tigers got what most expected they had with Orgeron.

Whatever that is, it ain’t Kirby Smart.