Defending National Champ Head Coach Ed Orgeron on the Upcoming College Football Season

AJ Hoffman: Coach this is going to be a crazy season for you guys. Have you even been able to set expectations for performance because you don’t even know what the expectations of an actual season are?

Ed Orgeron:  We’re playing. We’re ready to go. We’re going to have 10 games in the SEC, which is going to be very challenging. We’re going to go as planned. We plan on having a great season.

AJ Hoffman: Coach obviously, you know, the thing that’s looming over this entire season right now is this COVID-19.  Have you talked to your players about how different the actual season will have to be in order for the guys to keep playin

Ed Orgeron: Yeah, you know, first of all, we have to follow the COVID rules, Shelly and Jack, our trainers, I think are on the forefront of this. They know that they’re safe when they do get it. I think they know they get proper care, they get quarantined. We have a lot of information. You know, we wear our mask at practice, which is different. But you know what? They get used to it. They tried their shields on one time. Some of them say it’s hard to breathe. You know I said we’ll find a solution to that. Whatever it is, we want to put our kids safety first. No question. But at LSU, we want to play football. Our kids are eager to play football. They worked all year. And I do believe we have a chance to have an excellent season.

AJ Hoffman: You know, you had a quote earlier, I guess probably three or four weeks ago, where you said college football is, you know, the lifeblood of our country. And there’s a lot of people,  particularly people in California or New York, who thought it was a silly comment. A Maybe they don’t understand what college football means to especially places like Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Like is it tough to explain to people outside of big time college football towns like how important college football is to certain parts of the country, particularly that southeast part of the country?

Ed Orgeron: Yeah, you know, I understand their point of view and I get it. And people have different views. And that’s what makes this country great. But I do believe you come Saturday night in Death Valley and LSU is playing Florida, LSU ‘s playing Auburn, and LSU’s playing Alabama, the town is, the restaurants are full, the hotels are full and everything is hopping. You see why football is so important to our area of the country. Now, I want to say this again. our safety of our players is most important, but if we can do it, we need to do it.

AJ Hoffman: Coach obviously, you know, the thing that’s looming over this entire season right now is this COVID-19.  Have you talked to your players about how different the actual season will have to be in order for the guys to keep playing?

AJ Hoffman: Now, the big thing that happened with this, and there’s been a lot of these games canceled with teams playing only their conference schedules, so you guys lose out on the home end with Texas. Should we assume that that’s going to be rescheduled at some point?
Ed Orgeron: I would think so. Well, obviously, we’d love it. Texas is a great matchup for us, it was a great game last year. Houston’s a big recruiting area for us. So, yes, we want to play Texas.

AJ Hoffman: And obviously, you guys missed out on that Rice game, too. But how big of a deal is it for you guys to recruit in Texas?

Ed Orgeron: Huge. You know, some of the best players come from Texas and especially in the Houston area and Dallas. We’ve done very well. We’re doing very well right now. We’ve got great players from Texas, they come to LSU and they enjoy it. Some of the best players have been from the Houston and  Dallas area.

Fred Faour: Coach when you go into a season like this where everything is uncertain, if you don’t know how many fans you’re going to have; how much does that affect your team on the field and your coaching?

Ed Orgeron: Well, we’re not going to let it affect us. We got to block out the noise. Whatever happens, we’re going to have to deal with it. And it’s going to be the same with a lot of teams. I think the team that has the mental toughness, I think the team that deals with the task at hand is going to have success. Now obviously I want the stadium full at LSU. It’s a home field advantage, as you guys know. But I do believe we’re going to have fans in the stadium. That’s not much my decision, but I’m looking to have a Tiger Stadium almost full and hopefully, hopefully we can do that.

AJ Hoffman: When you look back at that season and, you know, you mentioned beating Texas and really the SEC West just as a whole was great last year. Is there I mean, do you really believe that that was the greatest college football season ever for a team?

Ed Orgeron: Yeah, it was a great year. You know, that’s not my decision. But I’ve seen some great teams. We all have. I think that’s just a matter of opinion. But I do believe when you look at all the top 10 teams that we’ve beat and how we beat them, that is going to be mentioned as one of the greatest, if it’s the greatest, who ever knows, but I think it needs to be mentioned as one of the greatest teams.

AJ Hoffman: You mentioned Joe Joe Burrow and what he was expected to be.  I didn’t see it in Joe Burrow before last season. Then really the truth is on tape, if you watch tape of Joe Burrow before last season, there was reason to question him. When you met Joe, when you saw Joe, did you know that there was something special and you just had to find a way to get it out of him?

Ed Orgeron: Here’s the thing that I knew about Joe. We had a meeting. Joe didn’t want to talk any recruiting. He wanted to eat crawfish and talk football. So, OK, we got a lot of crawfish and we can talk football. And we had a meeting and there was about six of us in that meeting as a football meeting. And I was in there. And it took me about five minutes to realize that Joe Burrow was the smartest guy in there, including me and his football IQ is off the charts. I’ve been around a lot of great football players, a lot of smart football players, but I knew then that he was going to be special. Now, his first year, Joe had to develop and then we got into the spread, which was really Joe’s offense, because he could make the decisions at the line of scrimmage and he had all that talent around him. But, you know, the balls that he threw, the decisions that he made, and some of the plays that he made, that’s why he won the Heisman. What a phenomenal year.

Fred Faour: You recruit great coaches and you see your players develop as Burrow did. How important is it to get a staff of guys that can help you develop the players the way you want to see it done?

Ed Orgeron: It’s key. When I took over LSU, I knew that recruiting, you know, that’s one of my strengths, when I took over LSU I wanted to get coaches that not only could recruit, I wanted to get coaches that knew the game of football, that studied the game of football. And we got you know, we got guys who have been in the NFL. We got guys that are 60 years old, still some energy. But they’re football coaches and they’re good men, I think we talk about development. We talk about ongoing skill development, about getting better, about character, about grit, and I think you see these five stars come, they’re great athletes, four star, it doesn’t matter. And they develop and they get better.

Fred Faour: Coach, what was it like having a guy like John Robinson around and how much how much was he involved? Because, I mean, he just he’s got to be just a treasure trove.

00:14:34
Ed Orgeron: Oh, my God. Every day, thankful. You know, Coach Robinson and I created a great relationship at USC and I just love him to death and when I found out he was available, his wife, Beverly, graduated from LSU. So she wanted to come home. And I told Coach Robinson, who’s 82 years old, I think he is, he never tells me his real age, I said Coach we get in the office at 6:00 in the morning and we get out at 10:00 at night, I do not expect that from you. Come whenever you want. Coach Robinson is in the office at six o’clock in the morning and leaves at ten o’clock at night at 82 years old every day. He’s just been a treasure, man, what a great guy to have.

AJ Hoffman: Is there anything you want to say to the kids out here in Houston? Maybe there’s some recruits listening.

Ed Orgeron: First of all, I want to say hello to all the great LSU fans in Houston. When I go to the schools, there’s more LSU fans there and they support us, I want to say hello to all the players that have worn the purple and gold in Houston. all the great players. I can’t say anything to recruits, but I’m coming. We’re going to be there and go Tigers.

AJ Hoffman: All right. Hey, Coach, appreciate you man.

Ed Orgeron: Alright, man.

Interview By AJ Hoffman of ESPN Radio 97.5