Orgeron has his sights set on greatness

Published 6:06 am Monday, January 2, 2017

ORLANDO, Fla. — Perhaps not wanting to kill the post-bowl buzz, nobody had the gall to bring it up in LSU’s afterglow Saturday.

It was a sugar high fueled by a shiny trophy filled with a wide variety of actual citrus fruits.

And, now certified as LSU’s full-time head coach, there’s no telling how much Red Bull was added to Ed Orgeron’s Cajun blood after a 29-9 shellacking of what was advertised as a very good Louisville team.

But he wasn’t backing down.

“We look forward to building a championship program here,” he growled. “We’ve got work to do … do the things that championship programs do.”

Huh?

Alabama is still in the SEC West, right?

Orgeron looked like he wanted to go track down Nick Saban right that moment.

But what was it that they said in “Animal House” when Bluto was waxing poetic about the “Germans” bombing Pearl Harbor.

Forget it. He’s rolling.

Indeed he was.

Let him go.

Orgeron wasn’t content just to hold the nation’s highest scoring team — 45.3 per game coming in — without a touchdown and turn a Hesiman Trophy winner into a basket case.

Not the way he rolls, apparently.

Coach B?B? had no sooner gotten the impressive victory he needed to reassure a fickle fan base through the offseason than he let them know he was hunting for bigger game.

And they better all get on board.

“We’ve got great players. Let them play, right?” Orgeron said. “Awfully excited about our football team, the way they bought into one team, one heartbeat.”

No question.

LSU always has players — they even have a usable quarterback these days.

But … pssst.

Somebody needed to slow Orgeron down. It’s not like LSU expectations don’t go through the roof every spring and summer without much prodding.

Did he not realize that, talent-wise, this was the year LSU had been pointing to, even had a couple of last year’s juniors surprisingly resist the NFL riches to re-up for another Tiger hitch.

There’s a downside to that kind of can-do loyalty.

You lose a bunch of seniors the next season.

LSU was already going to be losing six senior starters off that defense that was maybe as dominant against a really good offense as any in memory.

As of sundown Sunday, you can add key junior defensive lineman Davon Godchaux to the list. He announced on social media that family concerns mean that he will be forgoing his senior season.

Strong safety Jamal Adams says he won’t announce his decision until Friday, but there shouldn’t be a lot of drama there. He’s projected as a top 15 pick at worst. If a guy like that doesn’t leave early, somebody needs to kick him out of school for his own good.

However it shakes out, a good chunk of that awesome defensive performance won’t be there.

What, B?B? worried?

“We had guys that were waiting in the background this year,” Orgeron said, and, in fact, he had Exhibit A sitting next to him. Derrius Guice, in fact, in his first game with no threat of having Leonard Fournette tap him on the shoulder, was holding the MVP trophy.

“Think about this guy, what he’s done for the team this year,” Orgeron said. “We had probably one of the best players in college football in Leonard Fournette get hurt. Derrius stepped in and didn’t blink an eye. He’s one of the best players in America. I totally expect him to be the best player in America next year.”

Forget it. He’s rolling.

And maybe he really is on to something.

Don’t use Guice as an example — he wasn’t an unknown, certainly, and he had two of three biggest rushing games in LSU history, along with the longest-ever run, before the Tigers arrived in Orlando sans Fournette.

LSU had already moved on from Fournette.

But LSU also played without the heart and soul and key player of its defense, Kendell Beckwith, and, well, it’s hard to say they missed him.

For that matter, DBU isn’t going to run out of defensive backs anytime soon, and perhaps Orgeron noticed that two of the eight sacks the Tigers got against poor Lamar Jackson were registered by a pair of true freshmen.

Mainly, though, Orgeron must know he has Dave Aranda orchestrating it all as the mild-mannered, but diabolical, genius at defensive coordinator.

“Brilliant on Dave’s part,” Orgeron said of holding Louisville to well less than half (220 yards) of its average offensive output (559).

Between the end of the regular season and the bowl trip, LSU made Aranda college football’s highest-paid assistant coach.

Saturday’s schematic masterpiece showed why he’s worth it.