He is a great recruiter but hardly a "damn good coach" He benefits from being in probably the best geographic recruiting location in the country bridging two great areas: Florida to the east and Texas to the west. He has the same fatal flaw that Willingham has as a head coach: he has never been a coordinator. He therefore is heavily reliant on having quality coordinators on both sides of the ball. He has that with the defense where Aranda is the highest paid, and probably best, DC in the country. He has had a revolving door at OC which shows.
One good game against a quality opponent doesn't make him a quality head coach. It is easy to predict that LSU, considering their talent, will have two inexplicable losses before the year is over.