All-American Stingley expected to return this week

Ed Orgeron expects that his LSU team will get All-American cornerback Derek Stingley back this week against Vanderbilt.

Whether LSU’s self-styled DBU personna — Defensive Back Univerity — will recover to make an appearance in Nashville remains to be seen.

“I think Derek is going to be back,” Orgeron said Monday. “We’re waiting for all the medical exams to clear. But I expect him back as early as maybe (Tuesday).”

Stingley was an unexpected scratch for the season opener against Mississippi State due to a sudden illness Friday night, and the Tigers’ clearly missed him as Bulldog quarterback K.J. Costello humbled the Tigers for an SEC-record 623 yards passing in the 44-34 upset.

“If the doctors say he can play and Derek says he can play and momma and daddy says it’s okay, he’s going to play,” Orgeron said. “If not, he won’t.

“Obviously he makes a difference on our team. We need that. It’s a position we need. We’re very short there.”

Orgeron said the Tigers have to wait another week before defensive tackle Glen Logan, who missed Saturday’s game for undisclosed reasons, rejoins the team for the Oct. 10 home game against Missouri.

LSU game-planned for the Bulldogs and first-year head coach Mike Leach’s wild offense with the idea Stingley would be there and they could play man-to-man offense against the passhappy Bulldogs.

But with Stingley out, LSU really had no experienced cornerbacks on the field.

Darren Evans, who only transferred from Nicholls State a month ago, started in Stingley’s place opposite sophomore Cordale Flott with true freshman Elias Ricks at the nickel back.

All struggled against Mississippi State as the Tigers basically stuck with the manto-man plan.

The number that jumped out at Orgeron was the 383 yards State receivers gained after catches.

“Obviously that’s tackling, that’s assignments to any guys running free. We gotta work on our coverage. We had some mistakes in our coverage in leverage.

“We thought we could man up with the receivers. We should have made a couple of more adjustments during the game.”

Orgeron said he leaves those decisions up to defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, who had an inauspicious return to LSU.

“We talked about it,” Orgeron said. “They were hitting us on some pick routes, some over routes. Some of it was scheme. Some of it there was some kind of adjustments that we can do — not necessarily play zone, but you can do some adjustments in man and passing guys off, not passing guys off.”

He said Pelini was the first coach who sought him out following the game.

“He said, coach, I should have done a better job. And he was hurting just like everybody else. And we went over the film, and he saw the things that he did well, saw the things that we must and will improve. He’s been fantastic today. He’s eager. He’s an outstanding coach. He’s hurting just like everybody else.”

Orgeron said it didn’t necessarily mean that the DBU would ditch its’ standard manto-man coverage.

“We may do that, may not do that at all. It depends. Having Derek not there really hurt us, obviously.

“We gotta execute better, and we gotta make better ingame adjustments during the game, during halftime. Could have had a better plan on both sides of the football first game.”

In the end, as usual for a loss, Orgeron blamed himself for the Tigers laying and egg with so much anticipation following last year’s national championship and the long wait due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I take all responsibility,” he said. “But we’re going to get it fixed and get it going. I believe in this coaching staff. I believe in this team. I know they’re hurting today, but I know that we’re going to come back and have a great practice.”