Why LSU Head Coach Ed Orgeron is the most overrated coach in College Football

 

It was January 13th, 2020 and the LSU Tigers had just defeated the Clemson Tigers 42-25 in the College Football Playoff National Championship in New Orleans, Louisiana of all places. Head Coach Ed Orgeron had led LSU to an 15-0 undefeated season which only one other team in college football history had accomplished (2018 Clemson Tigers). According to Saturdaydownsouth, LSU had a historic season for lots of reasons, they defeated 7 top 10 teams at the time they played and scored 728 points in a season, both the most ever in a college football season, put up over 600 yards of offense in the National Championship, they trailed by double digits for only 81 seconds all season, and finally quarterback Joe Burrow threw an NCAA record 60 touchdowns in a season on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy. With all of these records broken and possibly having the best college football season and team in history how can Coach O possibly be overrated? Coach O had the perfect storm and if not for that storm potentially would have been fired. 

Recruiting prowess does not lead to on field success: 

Coach O has always been known as one of the best recruiting coaches in college football over the last 15 years dating back to his early assistant days at USC in the 2000s. He has lots of energy, truly cares about his players and was born and raised in Louisiana. His passion for football and for the state of Louisiana  reflects in successful recruiting classes. According to ESPN, LSU's last 5 recruiting classes 4 were top 10 recruiting classes with his lowest ranking class being 14th in the whole country. LSU since the days of former head coach Les Miles have always had one of the best and deepest rosters in college football due to playing in a talent rich high school football state like Louisiana. Despite this recruiting success and Coach O having a 44-12 record at LSU looking closer at the losses reveals some issues. If you take out a 7OT 74-72 loss to Texas A&M in 2018 and analyze the other 11 losses, LSU is only averaging 15.7 points per game. Before 2019, LSU was 0-3 against Alabama being shutout twice and only scoring 10 points in the other loss while also being 1-2 against Florida. Alabama is LSU's biggest game of the season every year and to not be able to score or compete offensively is unacceptable. The lack of firepower offensively in those losses is all on the head coach and the identity of the team which for the longest was focused on playing strong defense and running the football was not working against elite teams. 

Coach O's head coaching past:

Coach O took over the LSU program following Miles firing 4 games into the 2016 season after starting 2-2. Miles had 7 double digit win seasons in 11 years at LSU, but struggled to beat Alabama going 5-7, but went 3-7 against Nick Saban coached Alabama teams. Coach O had not only fallen short to Alabama his first three years, but he was not unknown to failure in coaching or in big games before his time at LSU. Coach O had been an assistant coach from 1988-2004 before becoming a head coach at Ole Miss. His stay Oxford did not last long as he went 10-25 in three seasons. As the interim coach at USC in 2013 he went 6-2 and had a chance to get the head coaching job but lost to USC's two biggest rivals, getting blown out by UCLA at home 35-14 and losing 14-10 to an average Notre Dame team that year. Now we look at the 2020 season. LSU is 2-3 with their two wins coming against teams with a combined 2-9 record. In their 3 losses LSU is giving up 45 points per game, losing to a Mississippi State team breaking in a whole new offense and a new head coach in Mike Leach, a Missouri team with a new starting quarterback and head coach and finally only scoring 11 points against Auburn while being blown out by 37. While LSU lost both coordinators and had heavy roster turnover, for a team that recruits as well as anyone and coming off of a National Championship to look this bad the very next season reflects on the head coach. Covid-19 and 2020 college football season is all about adaptability and flexibility and Coach O does not seem to be either so far this season, Covid-19 also cannot be used as an excuse as every team has had players declare themselves out for the season or have had positive tests delay practices and or games. This just shows that outside the perfect storm that was the 2019 season Coach O is an average coach.

The Perfect Storm: 

Everything went right for LSU during the 2019 season, but it all started when Joe Brady was hired as a passing game coordinator for the program. While he was not directly the offensive coordinator he contributed to play calling and his NFL background helped get this offense become more modern. Before coming to LSU Brady was an offensive assistant under Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints. According to ESPN, in 2017 the Saints were top five in total yards, yards per game, rushing yards, passing yards, and points score per game. While in 2018 the Saints were top 10 in total yards, yards per game and top 5 in rushing yards, rushing yards per game and points per game. While Brady was not directly responsible for this offensive success, just being around and learning from Payton and the Saints culture helped him get the job at LSU and influenced the way he sees the game. Coach O knew his offense needed some tweaking, but he himself and no one else expected the kind of success Brady would bring to this offense. Even with the perfect scheme and offensive philosophy it takes the right quarterback too perfect the scheme and that is exactly what Burrow did. Now, people give credit to Coach O for getting Burrow to transfer to LSU but Burrow had started the whole year before and looked like a late round pick not the number one overall pick again boosting Bradys importance for the 2019 season. Burrow also could not win the job at Ohio State losing out to Dwayne Haskins and JT Barrett in his time there. Coach O inherited one of the best assistant coaches in college football in DC Dave Aranda. From 2012-2019 Dave Aranda coached 6 top 20 total defenses and the other two were top 32 overall defenses showing his importance to the three programs he had been with in those 8 seasons. LSU had always had talented players on defense more than offense but the defensive players were now getting more national recognition as the offense picked up the slack. That 2019 LSU team also had an SEC record 13 players drafted in the 2020 NFL draft, including 5 first round picks in Burrow, WR Justin Jefferson, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Edge Rusher K'Lavon Chaisson, and linebacker Patrick Queen. That does not even include several others that are practice squads and players such as corner Derek Stingley, WR Ja'Marr Chase and Terrance Marshall, safety Jacoby Stevens, and defensive lineman Tyler Shelvin. In the 34 games Coach O had coached before the 2019 season LSU had a total of 9 games where their leading receiver had over 100 yards and in 2019 alone LSU had 13 games where their leading receiver had at least 100 yards, including 4 games where their leading receiver had over 200 yards. This shows the impact Brady had offensively taking all of those talented recruits and players to new levels under his watch partnering with a defensive coordinator that had a loaded defense filled with current and future NFL players. The success LSU had last year had more to do with the Burrow and Brady partnership along with a defense that was opportunisitc and played very well down the stretch. 

Coach O is an excellent recruiter, cares about his players, is very likeable, nice to the media and passionate about LSU and the state of Louisiana, but that can only take coaches so far. Coach O has been out coached constantly and is not as detailed as some of the coaches he has coached against including Saban, Dan Mullen, Brian Kelly, and Jimbo Fisher. While he does deserve credit for his recruiting success, getting Burrow to transfer to LSU, and hiring Brady it took a now NFL offensive coordinator in Brady with the Carolina Panthers and a now head coach in Dave Aranda at Baylor to maximize and develop the talents of the players he brought in. No one looked at Jefferson, Edwards-Helaire, Burrow, or Chase as high draft picks until Brady got there which is the point. Coach O is a nice guy but has had his limitations and those are being exposed this season and it took the perfect season for people to get lost in the charm and passion and forget about what really matters, the substance. That seven year contract extension LSU gave Coach O will not age well as he is making north of 6 million dollars and when a coach gets paid that kind of money he is seen and perceived as a great coach, unfortunately Coach O does not fit that description.