Orgeron assembling his staff

Published 5:27 am Friday, February 3, 2017

It wasn’t exactly a day-after mass bloodletting.

Nor was it part of the “One Team, One Heartbeat” mantra that Ed Orgeron likes to gravel-grumble about when barking poetic on his LSU football team.

But one day after signing his first LSU recruiting class, Orgeron fired one assistant in wide receivers coach Dameyune Craig and got rid of another by getting running backs coach Jabbar Juluke “reassigned” somewhere within the university (probably not the philosophy department).

“We appreciate the work that Dameyune and Jabbar did for LSU,” Orgeron said in a statement. “We wish them nothing but success in the future.”

The timing may sound strange.

But it happens.

It’s not the warm and fuzzy side of college football, but it’s the reality.

And certainly Orgeron, now that it’s his gig full-time, has every right to put together the staff that he wants and feels comfortable with.

Even lovable ol’ Uncle Les used to do the same thing regularly, right about this time of year.

Funny, how it seemed it was always a day or two after National Signing Day when an assistant or two would suddenly be “pursuing other opportunities.”

Miles never seemed to actually come out and blatantly “fire” anybody. They just kind of slipped away in the middle of the night and weren’t there anymore. Probably out pursuing those other opportunities.

You’ll see a lot of it from other schools and other coaches in the coming days.

Why now?

Because coaches are deathly afraid of ever upsetting that delicate ecosystem known as the recruiting season.

Do too much of that unpleasantness right after the season and somebody will suggest panic is setting in the program.

That’s not really a suspicion here because it’s a new regime and change was fairly predictable.

Besides, Craig took over Orgeron’s role as recruiting coordinator after Orgeron became interim head coach, so he was probably untouchable until Wednesday.

Thanks for your service, Dameyune.

But this is big-boy football. Orgeron finally has his dream job, and, whether it bruises any feelings or not, he has every right to assemble the staff as he sees fit.

Craig, in fact, came to LSU shortly after Tony Ball disappeared from Miles’ staff the weekend after National Signing Day. Whoever replaces Craig will be the Tigers’ fourth assistant for the position in four years.

Craig seemingly was very popular with the players and was known as a good recruiter. It’s a shame for him because he left a good job at his alma mater, Auburn, to join Miles’ staff last year.

He may have burned the bridges to Auburn, but he’ll land on his feet.

He has a good reputation in coaching circles, but word around campus is that, for whatever reason, he and Orgeron just didn’t really mesh. It doesn’t make either of them the bad guy, but if that’s the case, it’s probably better not to force fit it.

Juluke had the chore of coaching Leonard Fournette and Derrius Guice, which doesn’t sound like rocket science, what with both of those lads most adept at those tricky things that “you can’t coach.”

Some whispers are that Orgeron didn’t view Juluke as a great recruiter, and if there’s anything it’s obvious that Orgeron’s insists on, it’s recruiting.

He got good marks for his first class — he should, his specialty has always been recruiting ?— but he also ended his recruiting news conference exhorting that the Tigers had to do even better.

Perhaps he noticed that the recruiting haul still lagged far behind Alabama’s annual No. 1-rated class and that the Tide kidnapped six Louisiana players in the carnage.

He wants to build a Nick Saban-proof wall around this state, and it’s doubtful that Mexico is going to pay for it.

It could also be a matter that incoming offensive coordinator Matt Canada has some ideas about filling out the offensive staff.

At any rate, LSU will have a near-complete offensive overall for next season, which can’t be a bad thing.

Perhaps playing to the crowd, the first thing Orgeron did when he became interim head coach was to fire offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, with Steve Ensminger doing an admirable job in the role after moving over from tight ends coach.

The first thing Orgeron did after getting the job full-time was fire special teams coach Bradley Dale Peveto (who now has the same job at Ole Miss).

Now two more offensive coaches are gone.

So the only holdovers from the offensive staff who started the season at Wisconsin last September ?— assuming these are the final purges — will be offensive line coach Jeff Grimes and Ensminger somewhere (probably back to tight ends).

At least you have to figure the offense will be different.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com