LSU Coach Ed Orgeron Makes Appearance on College Gameday, Talks Opt Outs and Creating Change

Ed Orgeron said he'd listen and though it's only been a week, he's putting his actions where his mouth is. After meeting with the team at interim president Tom Galligan's office more than a week ago, the team has held team meetings, had special guest speakers and leadership council meetings about creating social injustice change.

During an appearance on College Gameday on Saturday, Orgeron said he was caught off guard by the impromptu player led march but was glad he had the chance to open the dialogue with his players later that afternoon.

"It was eye-opening to me because I haven't experienced the things that they're experiencing," Orgeron said. "It's time for our coaches and myself to be leaders in this social injustice. Racism has got to go and it's time for us to support our players any which way we can. They know I totally support them. We've had speakers this week, we've had talks, we've had leadership council meetings and we're going to do things as a team to show everybody we support everything that's going on for our football players."

LSU returns just five starters from the 2019 championship team after the recent departures of Ja'Marr Chase, Tyler Shelvin, Kary Vincent, Neil Farrell, Justin Thomas and TK McLendon. All of a sudden, it's a young, inexperienced roster in Baton Rouge but one that Orgeron believes has the talent.

With the recent opt outs, Orgeron said the biggest adjustment in recent weeks has been trying to find that chemistry and standard of performance with the younger players on the roster.

"I think it's getting the LSU standard of performance back with a lot of young players that are very eager," Orgeron said. "We've done a tremendous job of recruiting the last three years. I think we have a very talented team but we're a young team with not a lot of experience. We feel confident about the talent on our football team."

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While much of the focus has been rendered to the talent LSU lost this offseason, the talent the program brought in should help weather the storm. Bringing in defensive coordinator Bo Pelini and the 4-3 scheme was one of the major offseason acquisitions and the early returns have been positive.

LSU held its first preseason scrimmage of the season on Friday and Orgeron said that the defense had more sacks than usual because of the disruptive, aggressive style of play that puts a premium on getting after the quarterback.

"We had more sacks yesterday than we usually have, we had a lot of pressure. We're very talented on defense, he's an excellent coach and he's brought a lot of energy to our defense."

How the team adjusts to the opt outs is the question moving forward as positions like defensive line and receiver will need to find other sources of production, most likely in the form of freshmen and sophomores.