LSU Coach Ed Orgeron Optimistic Fall Camp Returns in August, Thinks Jabril Cox Will Fit in Seamlessly
Like many of us, LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron is tired of flipping through the channels and is ready to get back to work. But on Thursday night, he’ll be glued to his television set to watch up to 16 of his former players get virtually selected in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Quarterback Joe Burrow is set to join Billy Cannon and JaMarcus Russell as the third LSU player to be selected No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft. Orgeron said he earned the right to be the starting quarterback from Day 1, and he’s probably the most focused player he’s ever been around.
“Joe [Burrow] wasn’t the Heisman Trophy winner when he got here,” Orgeron said. “He developed, he kept his mouth shut. He hasn’t had a silver spoon in his mouth all his life. He’s had to fight. Nothing was promised to him here. I don’t see why he can’t do that in Cincinnati.”
Orgeron met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to conduct a Zoom teleconference to preview the draft, talk recruiting and outline how his style of coaching has shifted amid this unprecedented coronavirus crisis.
“Come August, I think we’ll have camp,” Orgeron predicted on the call. “You have to have camp to have a season. June and July is still up in the air. We’re going to see, it’s out of our control. I do believe you need several weeks of conditioning, some type of football.”
Orgeron mentioned the biggest hurdle for the team to overcome will be for quarterback Myles Brennan and the receivers to get their timing down and catch balls together, as well as the gelling of the offensive line. With LSU losing four of their five starting linemen to the NFL, that will be key whenever the Tigers get the chance to return to the field.
Brennan has been doing what he can to stay sharp from a throwing perspective back in his hometown of Bay St. Louis but Orgeron admitted that it isn't the same.
"He's been down there at Saint Stanislaus, obviously doing a lot of working out on their own but I think he has a couple of guys he played football with throwing the ball," Orgeron said. "He's doing the things that he can do but it's not the same as it is here."
Since he officially signed his papers, Orgeron was finally able to talk about All-American graduate transfer Jabril Cox, who committed to the Tigers three weeks ago. Cox fills a major void at linebacker, and will likely vie for the starting role alongside Damone Clark.
“We feel he’s going to be an immediate impact player for us,” Orgeron said. “We talked to some NFL people, and they felt like he’d be a [first-round] draft choice if he came out.”
A crucial member of three FCS National Championship-winning teams at North Dakota State, Cox finished his 2019 campaign with an impressive total of 92 tackles, and 9.5 tackles for loss. He was also named an FCS All-American each of the three years he was in Fargo.
