LSU Part 1: In Defense of Ed Orgeron
If you’re a SEC fan – or even a college football fan – you’re probably aware of the situation at LSU.
The Tigers lost at LSU, nearly lost to Mississippi State, should-have-beaten-but-somehow-lost to Auburn, and got absolutely destroyed by Kentucky.
If Ed Orgeron had a hot seat after the UCLA game, the Kentucky game made his nonk chauz as hot as the seventh corridor of hell.
But should he be fired?
Here’s why he SHOULD keep his job, despite LSU’s 3-3 record.
- Quarterbacks, quarterbacks, quarterbacks.
Myles Brennan was meant to be Joe Burrow’s heir, and the poor bastard got injured after only 3 games in 2020, and then got injured for the 2021 season. Max Johnson was never going to start in 2021, let alone 2020, but has had to manage the load. If Brennan had been in, then LSU would have beaten UCLA.
2. Everyone’s caught the injury bug
Against Kentucky, LSU’s best WR Kayshon Boutte was injured (he’s now done for the year). On the other side Derek Stingley’s done too. S Major Burns, DEs Ali Gaye/ Joseph Burns, Seniors Jared Small (LB) and Andre Anthony (DE) are all done – the latter two for the season. Add to that Johny Emery – who managed to do so badly in class that he’s out for this year – and it’s a pretty dire situation.
That is not Ed Orgeron’s fault.
3. He won a damned National Championship…
In the 2019-2020 season, LSU had the most glorious, wonderful offense I’ve ever seen. Joe Brady put together something beautiful. And then they all left. His best weapons (Joe Burrow, J’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Clyde Edwards-Helaire) are now NFL starters. C Lloyd Cushenberry anchors Denver’s O-Line. There is so much talent from that 2019 team in the NFL right now. And of the 2020 season, Coach O’s best WR, Terrace Marshall was gone after getting injured midway through the season.
And while we’re at it, Joe Brady went to the pros straight after the season finished, and DC Dave Aranda is running the Baylor show, where he’s doing quite well this year, thank you very much.
4. The losses weren’t actually as bad as you’d like to think.
The loss of that amount of talent is going to hurt any team. Look at 2021 Alabama, for crying out loud. They just lost to an unranked team.
LSU’s three losses were all at ranked teams, and two of those were on the road. The Auburn one was the most inexplicable, because they were by far and away the better team, but lost to some Bo Nix Stephen Garciaesque magic.
5. He’s an exceptional recruiter
There is absolutely no doubt that Coach O is one of the best recruiters in the land. We know this because despite their incredibly ordinary 2020 season, he had the third-best recruiting class in the nation, and this year, he’s got the 8th. The kids and their parents obviously love his passion. Yes, this year has sucked, but with ‘the kids’ a year older, might the 2021 recruiting class go out and take names in the 2022 season? Very probably. What happens if he goes? You can guarantee that LSU will lose a ton of its talent to other schools – and most of it to LSU’s SEC rivals.
7. Who really wants the LSU job right now?
The school doesn’t need the reputation of canning a head coach less than two years – one of it a ‘COVID year’ – after a National Championship. While Les Miles’ loss was predicted after years of miscues, Orgeron beat Alabama on its own turf – in 2019. No team has done that since.
You fire Orgeron, LSU, and you basically give an incoming head coach that he’s walking into a cauldron which will get rid of a successful coach one-and-a-half effing seasons after winning the damn National Championship and beating Alabama on its own turf.
Of course, people will throw out names like James Franklin or Chip Kelly or if you’re feeling really lazy, Matt Campbell. LSU fans want a ‘big-name’ to tell their buddies. They don’t want someone who’s not really recognized in the circles of SEC Big Dickdom.
Oh, and he’s got a $17m buyout.