Ed Orgeron knew his team needed changes after a slog in 2020 that needed two wins to climb back to 5-5, erasing much of the positive momentum built with an undefeated title run a season earlier.
Those changes came early and often, highlighted by a new offensive coordinator in Jake Peetz and a new defensive coordinator in Daronte Jones. But coaching changes reached much farther, including new coaches on both lines in Brad Davis and Andre Carter, among others.
So how did Orgeron establish his new leaders? It started with research, and a bit of play-acting. Orgeron pretended to be a player during coaching interviews to get an idea of how those coaches would interact with the roster on a daily basis. The coaches that he hired all got top marks.
Orgeron, speaking at SEC Media Days, was glad to hear a question about how the new hires appear to be positively impacting team chemistry thus far.
“That’s the reason I hired those guys. I did my research, I called people that knew them. I wanted to know how they interacted with their players. I called some of the ex-players that they coached, I said ’tell me how he is on a daily basis.’ You know, everybody can be one way in an interview, but I want to know how they’re going to be every day. I did my research on these guys and they matched everything that the ex players told me, that the ex-coaches told me and the knowledge that they have.”
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MORE FROM ORGERON AT SEC MEDIA DAYS
ON HOW THE PAST YEAR, DIFFICULTIES IMPACTED THE TEAM
“Obviously you come off of the 2019 season, you’re feeling good. You had a great season, and all of a sudden stuff hits. But, you know, that’s life. You’ve got to be prepared. I think that some of the stuff we were prepared for, some of the stuff we weren’t.
"But we stuck together. As an administrative staff, as a staff we fought through it. I think it shows when you go to Florida and you’re a 27-point underdog, your back’s against the wall, you’ve got a freshman quarterback. You beat them in the Swamp, you beat a great Ole Miss team — I think it was an outstanding team that Lane [Kiffin] had — and then you have the No. 3 recruiting class, and then you have 19 of your 22 starters decide to come back. So that says something’s going on in the locker room. Something’s going on, our players are believing in each other. And I think all those things, in the end we ended up being an ascending program.”
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PROGRAM'S APPROACH TO NIL
“First of all, I’m for it. Whatever we can give to our players legally, I think they deserve it. We hired an outside firm to give us some advice on how to handle this stuff. A lot of our guys have taken business on their own and done a very good job.
"I just know this, a lot of players, I think they’re going to get a lot of stuff. Obviously in the real world it’s not like that, you have to go out and compete. But I do hope that when we get to the locker room the focus is on football. And I think that’s where we have to bring the focus back. When it’s time to focus on NIL stuff, focus on NIL stuff. But when it’s time to focus on football and academics, focus on football and academics, and that’s what I’m going to talk about.”
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AREAS TO IMPROVE ON DEFENSE
“We have to eliminate explosive plays. We had too many explosive plays, too many missed assignments, too many busts, too many receivers running down the field free. And we play a lot of man, a lot of combination man, stuff like that. Some of it was simple, some of it was too complicated. We’re going to simplify stuff. We want our players to have their cleats in the grass. We’re going to play a lot more zone. There won’t be switching off of this level, switching off on that level. We’re going to let our guys play, keep the ball in front of us and make plays.”
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ON QB BATTLE/GETTING BACK TO 2019 (JOE BRADY) OFFENSIVE SYSTEM
“Obviously on offense we’ve got a battle at quarterback. I think it’s healthy for our football team. I believe in both quarterbacks. Myles Brennan and Max Johnson I think are two championship quarterbacks. Whoever wins is going to do a great job at LSU. It’s going to be a great battle and we’re going to see what happens.”
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“I don’t know if we’re going to see another Joe Burrow. I hope we do, I can’t wait to see him. And I hope Max, Myles or Garrett Nussmeier becomes like that. But the type of offense that we’re going to run, the style of offense in 2019, the type of checks that we had, the type of protections, that’s the stuff I’m talking about now. Whether or not Max, Myles or Garrett can run it like Joe, I’m not expecting that. But I want to see the same type of plays, I want to see the same types of adjustments that was so successful for us. Now, that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing we’re going to run, but that is going to be the basis of our offense, which is a spread offense that we learned under Joe Brady.”
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Follow Jeff Nowak on Twitter @Jeff_Nowak or contact him by email at jeffrey.nowak@audacy.com