CBS Sports Writer Lists Mark Dantonio As Candidate For LSU Job
By: Evan Jankens
@kingofthekc
In 1999 one of the better coaches Michigan State University ever had leading their football team left to coach LSU. Nick Saban was that coach. He has since moved on from the Tigers and has coached the Miami Dolphins and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Now on the heels of Les Miles being removed from his coaching job at LSU, CBS Sports writer Tom Fornelli listed 10 candidates who could replace him.
One that will shock you is Michigan State's Mark Dantonio. Fornelli listed him as the the "holy crap I didn't see that coming choice."
Mark Dantonio, Michigan State: OK, here's the theory. Dantonio has been incredibly successful at Michigan State. What he's done there is nothing short of remarkable. But look around him right now. Dantonio, as good as he's been, is sharing a division with Urban Meyer's Ohio State juggernaut and a Michigan program that appears on the verge of becoming a real power again under Jim Harbaugh. Maybe now is the best time for Dantonio to move on. If you combine his ability as a coach with the recruits he can land at LSU, well, just think about what he could possibly do there. Nobody expects it to happen, but this would be a home run hire for LSU if it found a way to pull it off.
Let me get this straight, Fornelli thinks that the Big Ten is going to be too hard to coach in with Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh in the Spartans division -- but coaching in the SEC - West against Nick Saban, Kevin Sumlin and Hugh Freeze wouldn't be more of a challenge?
If Dantonio were going to leave Michigan State for a SEC school it would have been for South Carolina, his alma mater, last season. And he didn't. When asked about that job in 2015 he said, "Coach Spurrier has had an outstanding career there; it's my alma mater, we're here to talk about Michigan," before the Michigan game last season.
Other options that Fornelli has listed are Tom Herman (Houston), Jimbo Fisher (Florida State) and David Shaw (Stanford) as the top guys.