LSU Coach Ed Orgeron Says "Responsibility" of Tigers' Issues Falls Squarely on Him
Before Ed Orgeron got into his usual Monday press conference, he took a moment to put the shortcomings on this season squarely on his shoulders. A 3-2 start following up a 5-5 season a year ago is anything but the 2021 season this team had pictured and the issues that have cropped up are beginning to pile on top of each other.
"Ultimately I'm responsible for the performance of this team," Orgeron said. "I've always been responsible and I always will be, first and foremost. I want to get that point across."
Owning up to the mistakes this team has made through five weeks of the season was a consistent message throughout Orgeron's press conference with the media previewing the Kentucky matchup. When asked why he felt it was important to get that message across, Orgeron responded with not putting blame on anyone but him for what's transpiring with the Tigers' program.
"I think it's clear when things go wrong, obviously I get asked questions and it may sound like I'm trying to point the finger," Orgeron said. "As you know me, that's not me, I'm going to take full responsibility for everything that happens in this program. That's just the way it's going to be."
Much of the conversation lied with the offense and the inability for the group to find much of a rhythm. In watching the game Saturday it was easy to tell of the presnap confusion.
Plays and protections were being changed with time winding down on the play clock and the offense completely abandoned the up tempo style that had worked for two games. When the team got into the redzone, the offense wasn't able to capitalize with many of those same issues being a problem as the field became shorter.
This group was so much better the previous two weeks when it called a play and stuck with it. That was the crux of the issues that Orgeron discussed with the coordinators over the weekend and why there's been talk with moving consultant Steve Ensminger up into the press box moving forward.
"Things we need to fix on offense, pre snap process, our run game, redzone. Very disappointed in our performance in the redzone," Orgeron said. "On defense obviously the containment of the quarterback, rush lanes and how to tackle a quarterback. When we're chasing the quarterback, we have to stay in coverage. We call that plaster, we gotta work on that."
Until there are noticeable changes up front with the offensive line and commitment to the run, this offense's ceiling won't be all that high and its floor will be very low. But the playcalling is something that can be fixed and Orgeron understands the responsibility he and the offensive staff have on getting that right this weekend at Kentucky.
