Orgeron doing all the right things

Published 6:24 am Wednesday, October 26, 2016

OK, I get it. Everybody is pulling for Ed Orgeron to pull this thing off, to somehow do enough in the next month to earn his dream job atop the LSU football program.

It’s a great story and a noble experiment, putting a certified Cajun in the state’s most visible public office.

It’s never been tried.

So far it’s been a ton of fun.

The beauty of it is, it should be obvious when the four-game gauntlet is done.

You’ll know. They’ll know — whoever “they” are who hopefully will handle November a whole lot better than they did during last year’s ham-fisted (and embarrassing) attempt at a change of power.

You already know the guy can recruit. He’s got these seven games — three down, four to go —to prove he can coach and run the program.

He’s putting it on the line, making no bones that he doesn’t view this as keeping the spot warm for a bigger name. He sees it as the chance of a lifetime and, if nothing else, he’s in with both feet and is going to go down swinging.

He’s apparently been assured that he’ll get an honest look.

And, so far, so good. He’s saying all the right things. He’s done all the right things.

True, LSU has basically gone from a head coach nobody could interpret — even if they had a “want” to and the “chest” for it — to one nobody can understand.

But once you get past the ungraded gravel in the Coach B?B? accent — listen closely, with a Cajun filter — it’s really fairly plain English, well spoken at that.

Honest answers, too, deep from that bayou heart.

Downright refreshing.

Orgeron is as brash and blunt as Miles was quirky and confusing.

This thing will play out. Let it. Avoid the temptation to put a number on it — or, worse, base the whole thing on beating maybe the scariest Alabama team that Nick Saban has had.

But, in the meantime, let’s establish some ground rules.

Mainly, it does no good to tear down Les Miles to build up Orgeron’s unabashed campaign.

It’s a knee-jerk reaction that isn’t any good for anybody.

Sure, it’s tempting.

Orgeron’s LSU throws caution to the wind and risks a forward pass on first down, you turn to your buddy, and say, “Les would never have done that.”

Well, actually he did, if only occasionally.

But that’s not the point.

Miles was good overall for LSU, and for the most part fun and entertaining. His legacy is safe. Let it go at that.

The worst thing you can say about it is that his approach had gotten stale. For whatever reason, he couldn’t push the same buttons with the same results.

So, yes, it was time for a change — yes, even a drastic mid-season change (if for no other reason than, even if it’s fleeting, we at least get this delightful glimpse of Coach O).

Even in the frustrating end, Miles always got his wards to play hard for him, which isn’t as easy as you think.

But this season, as the offensive problems continued, somehow the energy was missing, maybe because the confidence of old was waning.

That was the difference, most often on third-and-9.

So the whole program got a shot of Orgeron Red Bull, although he has supposedly switched to another power drink, and it is looking promising enough that fans are so excited about playing Alabama next week that Tiger Stadium is going to be a zoo with a circus atmosphere.

Yet Saturday’s win over Ole Miss wasn’t in the books yet, and I had already gotten several emails complaining about the end of the first half.

What in the world was LSU thinking? Backed up deep, leading by 8 points, just over a minute from halftime? Just take that lead to the dressing room, right?

But of course, they “got greedy,” fumbled late and gave the Rebels a gift touchdown and a tie score to ponder at the half.

No fair complaining.

“We’re not going to sit on nothing,” Orgeron said afterwards with no remorse for the tie or the double-negative.

Well, that’s what you wanted, isn’t it? This is the aggressive, proactive approach to offense and game-management that every disgruntled fan was begging for.

Actually, that was pure Les Miles back in his most delightful Mad Hatter days, when he was never afraid to roll the dice. He did that kind of thing often — not so much lately, as his phobia for turnovers seemed to reach obsessive levels.

And you can expect more of those mistakes, too. There will likely be more turnovers.

Get used to it.

That’s the trade-off for throwing it around randomly whenever you want to, not just when you have to.

Of course, it has also set an offensive school record of one flavor or another in all three of Orgeron’s games.