Both our offensive and defensive coordinators have no prior experience in their positions. Although both seem to be very smart, knowledgeable, and ambitious, this was high stakes gamble by Orgeron. Neither struck it out of the park against UCLA and only have 2 more weeks to work out the kinks. Both may eventually turn out to be great coordinators but unless they produce quickly, it may be at another university. As for the previous coordinators mentioned above, I was not a huge fan of any. 1.Aranda was good but I think he ran overly complicated schemes and benefited by having great secondary and linebacking players (the latter which are not now nearly as good as in prior years). For all his acclaim, how may years under him did LSU have a top 5 or top 10 defense in the nation? As For Guido Merkins comment that “he couldn’t get out if here fast enough”, totally false. He stayed 3 years under Orgeron and left for a head coacing position and a huge pay raise. 2.The Matt Canada hire was mistake from the get-go. One which I believe Orgeron was forced into. His personality did not mesh with Ed’s. I feel comfortable in saying that most LSU fans did not like his offense based upon overuse of the jet sweep. And no, I don’t think Ed tinkered with Canada’s offense the 1 year he was here. He was the Pittsburgh Steelers qb coach last year, not their coordinator which he will be this year. I can’t imagine Mike Tomlin giving him free rein to run the mess of an offense he ran here. Let’s see how long he lasts there in Pittsburgh. He has had a lot of short 1 & 2 yr stays in the last 20 years. 3.Pelini was a good coordinator 20 yrs ago, but hiring him was a mistake. He didn't have the personality to deal with the players of today and seemed disinterested in both his job and evolving his defense to deal with modern offenses. That brings me to LSU_4_LIFE’s discussion above about Orgeron’s stubbornness in sticking with the same players who underperformed last year. I couldn’t agree more. Neither the OL nor DL were great last year. It’s time to play more of the younger players. Particularly on the DL, and at the safety & LB positions. Because of poor recruiting/player development we don’t seem to have a lot of options on the OL. Not true on the DL where we have some young studs. — Time to let them eat. As for the linebackers and safeties, the veteran players we played against UCLA made the same mistakes as last year. They learned nothing! They may be great athletes, but I wonder if they have football smarts/instincts needed to succeed. Time for a change.
He admitted tinkering with Canada's offense and I seriously doubt that it was only that one time. For the record, I absolutely hated the Canada offense... a few jet sweeps are fine but running 30 times a game is ridiculous. https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/lsu/article_69b3348e-a78f-11e7-aa3a-4767796e1047.html
I've said it in the past and deep down I really believe O just can't handle a project this big. I think he's great for publicity as the hometown cajun bringing his men to battle, but LSU is just too big and the fans demand more. I wish he would work out and I give him 19 but I do not see anything better than what we had before.
His success will rise & fall with this yrs hires for OC, DC, and recent position hires. He can recruit and motivate the team as he did against Fla. last year. Admittedly, he is not an Xs & Os genius.
We looked beat, you called it when you said this team is soft and they are. There is no fight in them, none at all!
Yes and that’s on the coaches. When O first took the job, didn’t they have something called Compitition Tuesday or something? As I remember people could challenge for position or something. It was something from Pete Carroll in his USC day’s. Now I don’t hear anything about competing or fighting for jobs. How can you improve if you don’t try to beat the best? We should have come out ready to kill Saturday after the disrespect shown by commentators.
