As Students Return to Campus, LSU Football Coach Ed Orgeron Asks Everyone to Stick to the Gameplan
The last five months haven't been easy for LSU coach Ed Orgeron. There were days when only two or three guys were allowed in the building to prepare for the 2020 season. There were nights when Orgeron would sit on the terrace outside his office at the football ops facility until midnight because he just didn't want to go home.
But the last five months have led to the start of fall practice and with the season just over a month away from kicking off, the Tigers coach sat down for a zoom call with the media for the first time since the spring.
Orgeron addressed a number of topics on the day including how the team is responding to students starting to move in. With LSU starting school on Aug. 24, the school began the process of moving in students for the upcoming semester. One of the big worries within conferences is how the positive case numbers would respond with thousands of students back.
LSU has handled the early days well according to Orgeron, who says there are currently "two or three players" who are out due to COVID-19.
"I do believe we're ahead of most programs because of Shelley [Mullenix] and Jack [Marucci] and the preparation they had for us," Orgeron said. "Our players feel comfortable that they're getting the proper care, our guys don't blink."
One of the points Orgeron wanted to make on Tuesday was making sure everyone knows this is a team effort. That doesn't just include the coaches and the players on the football team but the student body, professors and everybody in between doing their part to keep an outbreak from happening.
"I see the cars around campus, it's fun to see the life, the electricity around campus but wear your masks," Orgeron said. "Just do the things you're supposed to do. We expect that probably a spike at school is gonna happen but we have to overcome it. We got to flatten it out so Sept. 26 we can play football."
UNC started classes last week and after 130 cases were reported in the first week, the school reversed course and announced that all classes would be virtual for the rest of the fall.
Alabama students also started returning to campus last week and began congregating without masks, which prompted response from coach Nick Saban and commissioner Greg Sankey.
"I'm concerned with some of the images (from campuses) that I saw over the weekend -- (over) whether that will allow us to play football," Sankey said in an appearance on SEC Network.
"We're all in this together. We all have a responsibility in this environment to take care of our own health in a responsible manner, and then to take care of the health of those around us, in the same responsible manner. Likewise, the people around us have a responsibility to themselves and to us."
A benefit that the last few months has had on the program is that its given Orgeron and the coaching staff ample time with the players via zoom to implement the offense and defensive schemes. Whereas past years Orgeron said the team only has time to install the offense at most three times, the Tigers are currently in fall practice installing the offense for a fifth time.
"Our guys are getting in depth, in detail and it helps because we've got some new players on offense, a totally new defense and we're getting into it right now," Orgeron said.
The extended quarantine also helped the team draw up preliminary gameplans for all of the conference opponents the Tigers will play this season. That's something that Orgeron and the staff have not had the luxury of doing in years past.
With the SEC announcing the full schedule on Monday, LSU knows its first opponent will be Mississippi State and are well prepared for the matchup.
"We have already gameplanned Mike Leach and his coordinator," Orgeron said. "I think it's a good schedule, any schedule would've been a good schedule for us and I'm just happy that we're playing.
“The football school in July helped us out. We're a lot farther along than we've been. Everything is looking up right now for the Tigers."
