Ed Orgeron Throws Cross Words At Georgia Following Recruits Visiting Campus

Recruiting is a machine in college football that never really stops. Even when a world-wide pandemic hits, coaches regroup, rethink, and restrategize ways to communicate and talk with prospects all across the country.

With the NCAA placing restrictions on in-person visits, not only can coaches not take trips to high schools or player's homes, but they can not host players on campus for sanctioned visits.

However, nothing in the rules that the NCAA has laid out says players are not allowed to visit campus on their own. There's nothing stopping Brock Bowers from flying from Napa, California to Atlanta and taking a drive up SR 316 to visit downtown Athens and walk around town.

Prospects are not allowed to enter football facilities while on campus, they are not allowed to fund the trip, and they are not allowed to have any in-person contact during the trip.

Ed Orgeron doesn't like this happening. Not one bit. In fact, he made it a point during his press conference this week to make sure everyone, including the NCAA knew he didn't like it.

When asked about players taking visits to other schools Orgeron stated:

"We have not done that. Obviously, we want to follow the rules, I’m not gonna comment on other stuff. Let’s see how the NCAA handles it, but I think it’s getting, it’s pushing the line a little bit."

Now, obviously it's not a coincidence that these comments come in Orgeron's first opportunity in front of a microphone following two of LSU's top remaining targets, Foreman and Maason Smith, were in Athens.

The thing is though, it's not against the rules, as long as the football program did not fund the trip, and no coaches interacted with the players while on campus. Nothing is stopping Brock Vandagriff from walking around downtown with some of the nation's top prospects. Nothing.

If it were against the rules, you can go ahead and take these issues up with Tennessee, who has seen Amarius Mims and Nyland Green along with countless others take trips to Knoxville on consecutive weekends. You can take them up with Oklahoma. You can take these issues up with just about everyone except LSU apparently.

And to Orgeron's credit, up until this point, a source close to the situation tells Dawgs Daily on SI.com that Maason Smith hasn't been on campus in Baton Rouge since all of these restrictions were put into place. So, he's not exactly lying, but it doesn't mean he isn't whining.

Though this all comes during a time where LSU's entire athletic program is under serious investigation themselves for major NCAA violations as SI's Pat Forde has reported.

The father of offensive lineman Vadal Alexander received $180,000 in stolen money from LSU booster John Paul Funes, who admitted in 2019 that he embezzled more than half a million dollars from Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge. The money was payment from 2012–17 for what the NCAA characterized as a “no-show job,” according to The Advocate.
Former LSU standout Odell Beckham’s cash payments to players immediately after the Tigers won the College Football Playoff championship game in January. LSU officials initially told reporters that Beckham was handing out fake money, but later retracted that assertion after quarterback Joe Burrow acknowledged in an interview that the cash was real. LSU said the payments totaled $2,000, which Duncan characterized as a Level III violation.
An impermissible recruiting contact in January 2019 by LSU football coach Ed Orgeron. The Advocate said the school self-imposed recruiting restrictions on Orgeron.

And those are just the football violations. That's not to mention LSU's basketball coach being caught on FBI wiretaps with a "strong-ass offer".

What's that famous quote about making sure your own house is clean first?

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