Sports Illustrated National Writer Ross Dellenger Gives Thoughts on LSU-Clemson National Championship
From Joe Brady's contract extension to capturing the life of Ed Orgeron to perfection, SI writer Ross Dellenger is as good as it gets when it comes to LSU football.
We sat down to get Dellenger's thoughts on the game, his piece on Orgeron and if this team would go down as the greatest in college football history if they capture a National Championship Monday.
You broke a pretty significant story about an hour ago with the Joe Brady contract extension. Just talk about what that can potentially mean moving forward and just kind of where LSU stands now that they have that out of the way.
I mean as far as a college jobs go, for him to leave for another college assistant job, they would have to buyout the contract, the whole contract, so it protects LSU from him leaving for a college assistant job. However, it doesn't protect LSU from him leaving for an NFL job. So he's got a stipulation. Like most college coaches, a clause is in his contract. It says it's more flexible, easier, to leave for an NFL job. So still, there'll be some tense moments after the championship game in the days following.
As far as NFL interest, there has been pretty significant interest, which has been reported I think a lot of different places. The contract shows, first of all, how serious he is about LSU, that he was able to agree to something even though it was just a memorandum of understanding. So that's pretty significant in itself. Obviously, it's not going to go for another college system job. So that kind of locked them in there. But certainly the NFL is still something to watch.
That was a phenomenal piece on Ed Orgeron and his Cajun background. How did that all come together and was there anything you left out you wish could’ve fit?
I left out a good bit about his high school days down there. You know, just details on his high school days and his high school team. I had to leave it out because it just got too long. I was down there, let's see, that was the week before the SEC championship game. I was down in Baton Rouge for the A&M-LSU game so that Sunday I went down there and then I returned from the bayou and then returned to the bayou that Wednesday. I spent two days down there and hopping around all the little cities.
The bayou people are certainly a different breed. They are a lot of fun but they also have a lot of issues they're dealing with and adversity. That's what I really wanted to write about is that they had this native son who was so successful, million dollar football coach leading his team to a national title game and they're down there and it's a struggle at times for them. The oil industry is down, which they rely on a lot. The fish and the seafood industry isn't what it once was. There's a lot of poor down there. It was a fun trip down there and they're great people, a lot like Ed Orgeron.
Today at the CFP Media Day, Ed came up to me and said something about it. It's special for him. That place is special. And those people are.
I don't guess there's any particular story you can recall about his high school days that sticks out?
Their head coach, which I really wish I would have fit this in, it was almost more I forgot about it, but their head coach of that team was a man named Ralph Pere. I think it was a French last name of course, and he would smoke as much as two packs of cigarettes during the game on the sideline. He used to keep the cartons of cigarettes in the first aid kit, hide them in the first aid kit on the sideline. A lot different time for sure and a lot of different place.
Moving on to the game, the Trevor Lawrence-Joe Burrow matchup is stealing all of the headlines. Is this the best quarterback battle in a title game in recent memory?
That's a good question about wherever it stacks up on as far as other quarterback battles. I mean, if you just eliminate like regular season stuff, and you look at just the championship game, obviously last year we had Tua and Trevor Lawrence. That's pretty close.
It's just a sign of where football is, moving to the spread and you have all these hotshot quarterbacks that are just groomed from such an early age. This one is probably, people would say, just as good. I mean, Trevor's a year more experienced and Joe might be the number one draft pick. So it's pretty incredible.
On the defensive side of the ball, K’Lavon Chaisson likened this Clemson offense to the Alabama offense earlier this year but even more explosive. What is the weakness in this Clemson offense LSU might be able to exploit in your eyes?
Well, you know, early in the season, Trevor Lawrence had some issues. It's like their receivers and him just weren't on the same page early in the year and he threw a few interceptions for a stretch there. So there can be something exploited there. Trevor is still just a sophomore so I think you can rattle him a little bit, disguise the coverages. I'm sure LSU will do that, they've done that all season where they disguised some coverages, mixed up some man and zone. I'm sure you'll see a lot of that. But to say that Trevor Lawrence is some kind of weak point, obviously that's not true.
How do you see this game playing out? Are there any matchups or position battles that should be getting more attention that could be x-factors come Monday?
I think there's one key matchup. There's not a lot of defenses that have slowed LSU let alone stop LSU. Auburn probably got the closest and I don't necessarily think Clemson's gonna slow LSU much. If they keep them below 30 points, it'll be pretty dang good. I just don't think they're necessarily going to do that. So they're gonna have to outscore LSU and I think the key matchup there is Clemson's receivers against some of those LSU defensive backs.
You know, Kristian Fulton and obviously Derek Stingley, Grant Delpit back there, JaCoby Stevens. That's kind of maybe a key to the game is the Clemson receivers because in order for Clemson to outscore LSU, you'll have to score 35+ probably. In order for them to do that, they need those receivers to get good separation.
Just taking a birds eye view and if LSU is able to pull this off, go 15-0 with all the records to back it up, does this go down as the greatest college team in history? Where does it’s legacy lie?
Oh, yeah, I think if you just look at the numbers alone, the records broken. I think if they beat Clemson they'll have broken the NCAA record for top-25 wins in a season I believe.
That right there tells you that this is probably one of the best if not the best in college football history. You know, from here on out if they can finish Clemson off, I'm sure they'll be in all of the, at least the top-five teams in college football history. And certainly, you mentioned from a school standpoint, I think there's almost no doubt you know that this is the best team in LSU history.
