Ed Orgeron Gives Final Updates Ahead of LSU's Matchup with Auburn
Just under 36 hours from kickoff in Tiger Stadium, the LSU football team is putting the final touches on its gameplan for Auburn this week. A win this weekend would be fourn straight for the program and a 2-0 record in SEC play.
These next six weeks of SEC games will test this team a little more every Saturday, starting with a home battle against Auburn, a team that comes in with plenty to prove after barely escaping Georgia State a week ago. Ed Orgeron spoke with the media and offered some final thoughts on what LSU's offense and defense must do to come away with a win.
For this LSU offense to reach its full potential the running game needs to get off the ground and it's an area that Orgeron promises is being worked on but won't know more until the team sees it on the field gameday.
"You never can tell until you get tested on the field," Orgeron said. "There's some new techniques we've tried up front, we're being a little bit more aggressive in our blocking schemes. There's some different plays we feel our guys can do a very good job of but we need to see on Saturday."
While the team will still be without John Emery and Kevontre Bradford in the backfield, the offensive line will get Cam Wire and Charles Turner back for some depth up front. Moving on with Tyrion Davis-Price, Corey Kiner and Armoni Goodwin will be the plan but at the end of the day the success of this offense will need to start with the passing game.
Orgeron said the primary goal for the defense is to stop the very potent backfield of Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter but with LSU planning to get back to its four man rush, it's vitally important that the back half of the defense holds up. The program was extremely impressed with the play of Dwight McGlothern and Jay Ward in their returns to the field, with Orgeron also saying the consistentcy of Cordale Flott's play in the nickel has been key.
"I think those guys are playing really well," Orgeron said. "We have to tackle, cover those guys man to man because there will be single up on the receivers."
The team tried to simulate the physical, head down running style of Auburn this week in practice because of how low they run. One player who earned more playing time against Mississippi State and is learning how to be more of a physical player is linebacker Mike Jones.
Jones has been in and out of the rotation since transferring from Clemson in the offseason but Orgeron expects he'll be a part of the gameplans moving forward.
"One of the things we have improved in is our tackling and we're gonna get tested this week," Orgeron said.
LSU has a lot on the line this week and there have been subtle yet important improvements from this group over the last two weeks. The makings are there for an LSU win in front of a full capacity, SEC level crowd and the purple and gold know what's at stake.
