LSU Coach Ed Orgeron Gives Thoughts on First Preseason Scrimmage of 2020 Season

Ed Orgeron says there was a special energy in Tiger Stadium last Friday when the Tigers held their first preseason scrimmage of the season. It's the kind of energy that will need to be sparked on a weekly basis with little crowd expected to be in attendance for the 2020 season.

While making an appearance on Baton Rouge radio show Off the Bench on Tuesday morning, Orgeron recapped the first of three preseason scrimmages that the team is planning before kickoff against Mississippi State on Sept. 26. Among the notable standouts were tight end Arik Gilbert, who caught two touchdowns in the scrimmage, the defensive line putting consistent pressure on quarterback Myles Brennan and a lack of penalties on either side of the ball.

"We only had four penalties the whole scrimmage," Orgeron said. "That was huge for our football team, it was a great scrimmage. It was good to see our guys go live in Tiger Stadium. Coaches were fired up, players were fired up, the energy was electric. I told our players 'I don't know how many fans are going to be in the stadium so we're going to have to provide our own energy.'"

Goal line and third down is where the offense excelled in Friday's scrimmage according to Orgeron while the defense was able to sack Brennan four or five times. With junior Tyler Shelvin opting out of the 2020 season, getting some consistent pressure from Siaki Ika, Glen Logan, Joseph Evans, Andre Anthony and Travez Moore will be a must for this defense to have success.

"It was a seesaw battle the entire day, I thought our linebackers played well," Orgeron said. "Damone Clark and Jabril Cox were all over the field, our running backs ran the ball well, Myles was excellent. A lot of positive things, a lot of things to clean up but now we have preseason game No. 2 and hopefully we can make adjustments."