Former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajun Coach on ‘Short List’ in Las Vegas
There is never a time in Louisiana when it's not football season. In Baton Rouge, the LSU Fighting Tigers are just about to open up their fall camp. The same thing holds true in Lafayette where Louisiana's Ragin Cajuns will be strapping on the pads to face in-state opponent and HBCU icon Grambling when the season opens for both schools on August 31st.
The Tigers of LSU will open their 2024 football campaign a day later than the Cajuns will. LSU is scheduled to face USC on September 1st. That game will be played in Las Vegas. That fact, the game being played in Vegas neatly ties into the story that we're about to tell you regarding the upcoming college football season.
It was just a few short years ago that the University of Louisiana had the nation's longest winning streak. The Cajuns under then-head coach Billy Napier were a force to be reckoned with and Napier was the "hot candidate" for other coaching jobs. The University of Florida reached out with a dump truck full of money and Coach Napier and his family moved a few hours east of Lafayette to Gainesville Florida.
Coach Napier is entering his third year at the helm of the Florida Gators program and his past performance has landed him on a "short list" of sorts from oddsmakers in Las Vegas. The site SportsBetting.ag has Napier along with Sam Pitman of Arkansas as the "morning line favorites" for what NCAA coach will be the first one fired this season.
Napier's odds according to the betting website are four to one. Sam Pittman, the Arkansas Coach is next in line with odds of five to one. Then comes Mario Cristobal or Miami, Dave Aranda of Baylor, and Clark Lea of Vanderbilt. Those coaches are six, seven, and eight to one respectively according to the SportsBetting.ag website.
There are some pretty big-name coaches on the "short list" from SportsBetting.ag among them is Shane Beamer of South Carolina. His odds of getting canned are listed at sixteen to one. Dabo Swinney of Clemson is on the list too. His odds are twenty-five to one. And even Coach Prime is on the "get canned" list. If you wanted to bet that Deion Sanders would be the first NCAA Coach fired this season you'd get fifty-to-one odds.
Obviously, the only coach that we don't want to see have a good season is Lane Kiffin. Why? Lane is at Ole Miss, that should be enough.
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