Orgeron’s ego only casualty
Published 7:00 pm Friday, February 9, 2018
<p class="p1">For most of his first full year in office, LSU head coach Ed Orgeron didn’t dance around the Elephant in room. He was pretty blunt when saying that for the Tigers to catch Alabama and get back in the national discussion, they’d have to land more monster athletes like the ones Nick Saban kept hauling in, often from Louisiana.</p><p class="p1">It made sense. Recruiting is kind of Orgeron’s calling card. When it comes to landing talent, he knows whereof he speaks. No one ever doubted that.</p><p class="p1">Anyway, hopefully he has a Plan B.</p><p class="p1">Remember, the three major tenets of the Orgeron Administration, we were sold, were that he’d be a great recruiter, that he’d let high-profile (and well-paid) coordinators work their magic, and also that he was a pure-bred, bayou-raised Cajun.</p><p class="p1">Well, anyway, he still loves his filé and gumbo.</p><p class="p1">The other two major selling points are off to a rocky start.</p><p class="p1">The rock star coordinator system lasted one season, almost.</p><p class="p1">Dave Aranda is still around, maybe the best in the business as defensive coordinator, still officially the highest paid (after getting a big raise to ward off Texas A&M advances). He apparently got to hire the safeties coach of his choice on Thursday.</p><p class="p1">That’s the plan.</p><p class="p1">But the grand offensive experiment, which was to be the opposite of Les Miles’ alleged meddling ways, didn’t last a season.</p><p class="p1">Matt Canada, an outsider hired with much pomp and circumstance, had an interesting offense. It had its ups and downs, but if nothing else it was different. But, whether it was personal or philosophical, he and Orgeron never did really two-step together. There is, apparently, a limit to being hands-off.</p><p class="p1">In his place, Orgeron hired an old, familiar name. </p><p class="p1">Steve Ensminger will probably be fine as offensive coordinator, but that wasn’t the master plan that fans were sold.</p><p class="p1">Then there was Wednesday’s recruiting buzzkill.</p><p class="p1">It really wasn’t quite the fiasco that the social media meltdown would suggest.</p><p class="p1">But, gosh, the symbolism.</p><p class="p1">One 18-year-old player should never define a class.</p><p class="p1">But when Patrick Surtain Jr. snubbed LSU at the last moment, it pretty well shut down any planned celebration over Orgeron’s first full class.</p><p class="p1">Never mind that Surtain, nationally the top-ranked remaining player after December’s early signing period, was to be the crown jewel of a really good LSU class. Or that he’d been seemingly solid in the Tigers’ camp for three years.</p><p class="p1">He’s from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but his family has New Orleans roots and his former NFL All-Pro dad, Patrick, Sr. (who played at Southern Miss) apparently wanted him to go to LSU up until the very end.</p><p class="p1">And, still, he didn’t.</p><p class="p1">Things happen. Except that LSU didn’t just miss out on Surtain, he did a night-before-signing-date about-face and cast his lot with … Alabama and Nick Saban.</p><p class="p1">“That’s recruiting,” Orgeron said, and he was right — you’ll eventually see it all. You can’t take it personally.</p><p class="p1">But for LSU to lose <em>that</em> player to <em>that</em> school and <em>that</em> coach … oh the humanity, the agony, the pain. </p><p class="p1">It was almost taunting on Bama’s part, like the Tide dangled that carrot on a stick in the Tigers’ nose right up until the last moment before jerking it away.</p><p class="p1"><em>Almost had him, didn’t you? Hee-hee.</em></p><p class="p1">Actually, it reminded you of some of those recent LSU-Alabama games in Baton Rouge, where the scrappy Tigers would lead much of the game, well into the final minutes, before Saban would dust off another last-minute drive to foil yet another plot against him.</p><p class="p1">It was also a familiar feel as Orgeron’s last game, when the Tigers seemingly had control of Notre Dame in the Citrus Bowl before a shocking, final development. </p><p class="p1">Surtain probably meant no disrespect when he explained his late change of heart in choosing Bama (on national TV): “They win championships. I want to be a part of that winning culture.”</p><p class="p1">Ouch. Yes, that’s what Orgeron and LSU want to be … again.</p><p class="p1">It’s certainly not Surtain’s fault that LSU had invested so much into him that when he flip-flopped the Tigers basically came up empty at a position of real need.</p><p class="p1">But will LSU’s frustration over all things crimson never end?</p><p class="p1">Other than the Surtain downer, there was nothing much wrong with this LSU recruiting class.</p><p class="p1">Oh, a lot was made over the fact that the sacred “rankings” had LSU outside the top 10 for the first time since 2012, somewhere mid-teens depending on which services you worship.</p><p class="p1">Recruiting is absolutely important, the life blood of any program. Where the recruiting geeks lose me is when they claim to differentiate between, say, the No. 9 class and No. 12.</p><p class="p1">Some with the time and inclination to analyze such things have speculated that LSU’s class would have been in the top 10 with Surtain’s signature.</p><p class="p1">I’d also guess that a class as heavy on linemen as LSU’s was — the real key to catching Bama — suffers in those infernal rankings.</p><p class="p1">Regardless, it’s not a good look for the Orgeron regime.</p><p class="p1">Maybe they’ll just have to outcoach Alabama.</p>
