LSU, Auburn rob top co-ordinators and recruiters from Alabama

LSU and Auburn have both taken defensive co-ordinators from their biggest rival, Alabama.

In a stunning Tuesday, Kevin Steele, the Crimson Tide’s inside linebackers coach, defected to LSU to become the Tigers’ new defensive co-ordinator, after John Chavis left for Texas A&M after the firing of Mark Snyder before the bowl season after an awful season for the Aggies. Steele had previously been a defensive co-ordinator at Clemson, where his team saw 70 dropped on them by West Virginia in the 2012 Orange Bowl.

LSU fans and bloggers weren’t too happy about Steele’s signing. “The Valley Shook”, the LSU website, said that he suspects the hire “will go over like a fart in church“.

Also, LSU announced that they’d sign Ed Orgeron to be their defensive line coach, which was much more celebrated over Twitter. Orgeron is renowned to be one of the best recruiters in the game – and did a pretty great motivational job at USC after Lane Kiffin was booted from the head coaching job mid-way through the season in 2013.

Now, Auburn. The Tigers said that they had hired Alabama’s outside linebackers coach Lance Thompson.

It was pointed out by AL.com that Thompson is “one of the top recruiters in the country“, and also that this weekend is a huge one for the Plains, which host a recruiting weekend which brings in six 5-star recruits, including one committed to Tennessee and another to Georgia.

AL.com pointed out that Thompson also helped to bring in Trent Richardson, Julio Jones, Mark Barron, Robert Lester and AJ McCarron, as well as Rashaan Evans. Evans started last season for the Crimson Tide.

It is not known who Alabama head coach Nick Saban will replace Thompson and Steele with yet.