LSU Football 2021 Coaching Staff Has Common Theme of Youth and Relatability

With the recent additions of Blake Baker as linebackers coach and Andre Carter as the defensive line coach, LSU has completely revamped its coaching staff with young, up and coming coaches.

After a season where the average age of the coaching staff was 58, all of the sudden, by bringing in five fresh faces to the program, the Tigers hold an average age of 38 with the oldest of the new hires being defensive coordinator Daronte Jones and Carter (41). Getting younger was an obvious strategy for Ed Orgeron and the program as he talked about one of the most important elements in the search for the right fit, was finding coaches who could relate to and get the most out of the players on the roster.

Just take a look at the age of the men in charge of leading the Tigers this season:

Jake Peetz (offensive coordinator)- 37 years old

DJ Mangas (passing game coordinator)- 31 years old

Daronte Jones (defensive coordinator, safeties)- 41 years old

Kevin Faulk (running backs)- 44 years old

Mickey Joseph (receivers)- 52 years old

James Cregg (offensive line)- 47 years old

Andre Carter (defensive line)- 41 years old

Blake Baker (linebackers)- 38 years old

Corey Raymond (cornerbacks)- 51 years old

Aside from the age, there is a common theme of relatability that these coaches hope to have with the players. After all, most of the new hires are still in search of moving up the coaching ladder and success this season is an important step to not only getting the program back on track, but further their careers as well.

Peetz talked about the first couple of weeks on the job for him and Mangas won't be about the X's and O's of football. Instead it'll be about building strong connections with their players, learning what they like to do on the football field and fitting a scheme around what they do best.

"Without trust there is no relationship. We can’t be demanding of them in a positive way and really challenge them unless they feel that we believe in them," Peetz said. "It’s about learning these people. It’s about them learning me, learning DJ. I want them to know about my family. They can’t be family if they don’t feel comfortable coming over to my house. Or if I’m not bringing my family around them. Because when we build that, then we’re going to be able to get into football. Then we have trust. Then we have belief."

It's an approach that Jones will likely want to take with the defensive players and of course each position coach must do as they work closely with all of their respective talent.

Orgeron wanted to take his time with the defensive hires and he was able to move quickly after bringing Jones aboard. It's been an arduous, month long process but the future of the program will ride on the performance of this staff.

"I think we have assembled as fine a coaching staff as there is in college football," Orgeron said in a statement Friday. "I know our players are going to benefit tremendously from our coaches, not only on the field, but off the field as well."