LSU Coach Ed Orgeron Provides Latest Updates Around Tigers Football
With it's new coaching staff fresh and still getting settled, LSU coach Ed Orgeron says the work has been slow but meticulous, focusing primarily on fundamentals during the early weeks of football school.
After going nearly a month without a defensive staff, the program went on a hiring spree bringing in Daronte Jones, Blake Baker and Andre Carter, all of whom will be critical to the team's success in 2021.
Beyond just setting the tone for fundamentals, these new coaches, including on the offensive side, appear to be getting to know the players on a personal level. On Monday, Derek Stingley Sr. talked about how Jones had called Stingley Jr. multiple times and not just to talk football.
"That's the first thing he told me was 'Coach I wanna invest in the players and I wanna have a personal relationship with everybody on the defense,'" Orgeron said of Jones on Off the Bench. "So far he's here early in the morning, leaves late at night, leads tremendous meetings, is a great speaker."
For both Jones and offensive coordinator Jake Peetz, it's about fitting the scheme to the players and not the other way around. In addition to developing those personal relationships with the players, Orgeron also likes that the younger coaches like Peetz and Jones know how to implement and defend the spread offense.
The fact that they're younger and are likely more sufficient to relate to the players should help with communication on and off the field this season.
"I think those guys bring us a lot of knowledge and are also willing to work," Orgeron said. "The thing I like about it is both of them are the first time being a coordinator, they're very hungry and eager to prove themselves."
Of course LSU enters this season with an abundance of talent on the front lines with the entire offensive and defensive lines returning from a season ago. Orgeron specifically is excited about the edge rush the Tigers will be able to produce between Andre Anthony, Ali Gaye and BJ Ojulari.
He'll have more input with the way the defense is run in 2021 under Jones and figures to work closely with Carter on the defensive line as well, much like he's done the last few years.
"The 4-3 is better than the 3-4 because he was kind of a tweener in the 3-4 but now that we're in the 4-3, he's our starting right end right now, doing a great job," Orgeron said of the senior Anthony. "We were gonna play our ends a little looser this year, you can expect to have a better pass rush then we had last year and Anthony's gonna lead that charge.
"The thing I like about these coaches is we're not in a hurry to put a lot of stuff in. We're just getting the basic fundamentals down right now to make sure that we're doing it right."
