Key LSU Tigers assistant coach named as a candidate for vacant college football head coaching job

A key LSU Tigers assistant coach was named this week as a candidate for a vacant college football head coaching job.

CBS Sports pointed out Tigers offensive coordinator Joe Sloan as an option for the East Carolina job, which is open after Mike Houston was recently fired.

East Carolina is reportedly focused on hiring an offensive minded coach to replace Houston.

From CBS Sports : There is a belief, according to industry sources, that East Carolina is most interested in hiring a coach with a successful offensive background. It's no surprise then that three of the names that industry sources have mentioned as potential candidates are LSU OC Joe Sloan, Clemson OC Garrett Riley and Miami OC Shannon Dawson.

Multiple administrators have mentioned 37-year-old offensive coordinator Joe Sloan recently as someone they expect to garner interest for head coaching opportunities in the near future, including with the ECU job that opened last weekend when the Pirates fired Mike Houston.

After helping Jayden Daniels progress into a Heisman winner and top-two NFL draft pick as LSU's quarterbacks coach, Sloan now has the Tigers averaging an SEC-best 33 points per game in conference play in his first season as LSU's offensive coordinator. In addition, first-year Tigers starting QB Garrett Nussmeier ranks second in the SEC with an average of 317 passing yards per game.

"His attention to detail is impressive," an LSU source said. "So is his ability to lead and charge a group with a task and then get it done."

Sloan, who is in his first season as the offensive coordinator at LSU after serving as the program's quarterbacks coach the previous two seasons, would be an obvious choice for East Carolina. That's because of his offensive background and because Sloan, who is from Virginia, was a quarterback at East Carolina from 2005 to 2008.

For now, Sloan is obviously focused on helping LSU get to the College Football Playoff, but if he's approached later this year by ECU, it seems likely that he'll at least be interested in leaving Baton Rouge for Greenville.

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