BATON ROUGE — Give LSU’s Ed Orgeron credit for one thing.

He may have lost his dream job, he may have lost three straight games and he may have lost a baker’s dozen of his one-time starters to the Tigers’ overcrowded M*A*S*H unit.

But he’s hasn’t lost the locker room.

It could be a Florida situation, where the Gators gave up 49 first-half points to little old Samford (that’s SAMford, not STANford). Or you could be Texas under first-year coach Steve Sarkisian and roll over and lay down for lowly Kansas to win for the first time ever in Austin.

No, despite everything that’s happened this frustrating year, what’s left of LSU is playing its tails off.

For what, who knows? But the Tigers are giving it all they’ve got as they … whatever.

Plain and simple: Saturday in a 16-13 overtime loss to Arkansas, they deserved much better from their coaches.

Unlike Florida and Texas, not much you can do about that. LSU got way ahead of the curve and fired Orgeron in mid-October.

Can a coach get canned twice in the same season? Might need a ruling from social media.

No need, really, to be piling on Coach O at this moment. His emotions were right there on his Cajun sleeve following Saturday night’s frustrating loss.

The teary-eyed expressions and choked-up responses told you all you needed to know about how much LSU and this team still means to him.

But there’s no getting around it.

A true freshman quarterback, Garrett Nussmeier, took the blame — “This one is on me,” he said — after one of the two or three worst interceptions you’ll ever see pretty well gift-wrapped the overtime victory for Arkansas.

Hush your mouth, young one.

The game had been building toward that failure almost since the start.

Why?

This coaching staff failed them Saturday, perhaps the most glaring example of single-game coaching malfeasance in the Orgeron Era.

It wasn’t all Orgeron.

In fact, he may have been an innocent bystander to many of the hijinks — which is probably part of his problem.

And while we’re at it, let’s give the defensive brain trust a free pass on this one. Coordinator Daronte Jones seems to be much more comfortable with eight or nine starters missing and secondary coach Corey Raymond deserves some award for continually patching together a workable unit.

LSU’s defense has shown notable progress this season, even while scrounging through the bottom of the barrel for spare parts and hand-me-downs.

Offense, not so much.

Never mind that there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason and certainly no rhythm to the play-calling. It was just another night of throwing mud at the wall and seeing what might stick from yet another offensive coordinator — Jake Peetz — who has proven not to be Joe Brady.

They also might check the coaching manual on managing the always-tricky dual-quarterback system.

Why did Max Johnson even start the game if he was going to be yanked after two series and the game turned over to the whims of a true freshman.

Shouldn’t there have been some trial-and-error?

Might it have been worth a peak to see if Johnson learned anything from watching a few series from the sidelines.

No, the game was turned over to a freshman mistake waiting to happen.

But the curiousness hit critical mass in the second quarter — a moment all who were there to witness it will never forget — when the Tigers followed up a rare spate of offensive rhythm with … the wildcat formation … never tried and previously never seen in public. Yes, after moving crisply to the Hogs’ 17-yard line and already up 10-3 with a chance to start putting Arkansas away, running back Tyrion Davis-Price lined up in the shotgun and of course he fumbled and lost the snap and the game never really was the same again.

Somebody please explain the thinking with that?

“We have to be smarter than that,” Orgeron did explain later. “I don’t know if we’ve ran that at all.”

And …

“I don’t know if it was a very good idea … I wish I could’ve had that call back.”

It was a familiar song-and-dance played out in his postgame inquisitions.

He seemed as puzzled by some of the play calls and decisions as the fans in upper deck.

Yet he continues to complain after the fact about things he should have been nixing in advance.

Maybe that’s why he’s in his final few games of his dream job.

But even a lame duck head coach has veto power.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com