Charlie Strong is all but gone from Texas, but Ed Orgeron still has a chance at LSU

1. There’s no explaining Kansas.

Charlie Strong’s time as Texas head coach has all but officially concluded after a loss to the 2-9 Jayhawks on Saturday, UT’s first loss to KU since 1938. Strong is 16-20 as the Longhorns head coach and below .500 in conference play.

Since Texas’ loss to Oklahoma in October, Strong’s fortunes have been determined on a week-to-week basis by key influencers outside of the UT program.

According to one source, that includes vacillating, knee-jerk referendums on Strong and potential replacement Tom Herman by outside powers connected to UT have actually helped Strong’s case inside the Texas program. Support for Strong and his staff was steady among administrators as both he and Herman won.

Strong was well-respected and genuinely liked by the athletic department. As we wrote last week, even a 7-5 finish with staff concessions might’ve saved him.

That was before Kansas. Strong and Texas are expected to part ways at season’s end. One source confirmed to SB Nation that Herman would be at the top of the ‘Horns list, but “they won’t stop there.”

2. Since LSU’s 10-0 loss to Alabama, interim head coach Ed Orgeron and his staff have operated under the theory that if they won out and finished 6-1 in their “new season,” as Orgeron calls his interim period, the permanent job would be waiting.

There is now “zero certainty” that O is a lock, per one source at LSU, after Saturday’s 16-10 loss to Florida in a game that had been relocated from Gainesville to Baton Rouge due to Hurricane Matthew.

But that doesn’t mean Orgeron is off the board, either. Texas’ predicted firing of Strong and hiring of Tom Herman would pit Orgeron vs. Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher.

Fisher, the former LSU offensive coordinator, has been the steady favorite of boosters dating back to last season’s Thanksgiving weekend debacle with Les Miles.

If LSU finishes with a win over Texas A&M on Thanksgiving, Orgeron’s chances vs. the non-Jimbo field are still great, especially if he can keep the current staff intact and promise a splashy hire at offensive coordinator.

3. If Tennessee can beat Vanderbilt in Nashville next weekend, Butch Jones’ Vols would finish 9-3 and 5-3 in league play, their best regular season mark in Jones’ Knoxville tenure.

But just as Texas’ loss created a potential shift in LSU’s coaching search, so too did LSU’s loss affect Jones, albeit not his immediate job security.

The Vols’ 2016 floor for success was a division title, and Florida’s win Saturday ended those hopes. Even with a potential 10-3 finish, Jones will fight another calendar year of frustration with an increasingly impatient fan base.

Multiple sources have told SB Nation that Jones’ long-term future with Tennessee is good, despite not winning the division and the transfer loss of starting running back Jalen Hurd. If Tennessee wins out, Jones will have increased his win total in each of his four seasons, and injuries have decimated the Vols in 2016.

There’s also the matter of vision in Knoxville. The school is retiring athletic director Dave Hart in 2017, and a successor is TBD. In this transition period, Jones is considered a key asset to Tennessee, regardless of fan expectations for 2016.