Ed Orgeron is never one to sit back and just hope things work out.

He seems to get his best revelations walking toward the Tiger Stadium tunnel after a frustrating loss or season.

In 2018, after losing 27-0 to Alabama, he was making that stroll when he knew for sure — somehow, someway — that LSU was about to join the up-tempo, spread offense revolution and turn loose promising quarterback Joe Burrow.

Undefeated national championship — Heisman Trophy.

Last year, by the time he strode off for the final game, a wild win over Ole Miss wasn’t enough to offset a 5-5 season. He knew right then that there would be changes coming to his staff.

If you recall, the unspoken business model for the Orgeron regime when he got the job was to hire rock-star coordinators, let them do their thing, work their magic.

Oversimplified, perhaps, but that seemed to be plan.

Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. Much of his year-to-year work seems to be tinkering with coordinators.

That plan was team-of-the-century off the charts when it was Dave Aranda on defense with Orgeron striking gold on offense with young hot shot Joe Brady to pair with (and unleash the inner gunslinger in) Steve Ensminger.

Granted, it didn’t hurt to have a Heisman Trophy winner pulling the strings.

But following that with Bo Pelini on defense and two freshmen quarterbacks on offense didn’t have quite the shock-and-awe value.

Pelini was an honest mistake — certainly seemed logical at the time.

It’s still mind-boggling that the hire bombed so badly.

But Orgeron knew early on it wasn’t working. Say what you want, but he isn’t afraid to make changes. It wasn’t just Pelini. Other heads rolled from maybe the worst LSU defense of all time.

It was time for a shake-up on both sides. Orgeron wanted younger faces to better connect with today’s breed of athlete.

The result doesn’t quite fit the original model, however.

New coordinators Jake Peetz and D.J. Mangas on offense and Daronte Jones on defense are hardly household names, certainly not coaching rock stars.

But neither was Brady when Orgeron plucked him from way down the New Orleans Saints’ staff pecking order.

So it doesn’t mean you have to hire a big name like Aranda to make this plan work.

Defense was easily LSU’s biggest problem a year ago, particularly considering the talent on hand.

So Orgeron’s adjusted plan for this season was to get more hands-on personally.

And for a while he did.

Early in August Orgeron was reportedly all over, not just the defense, but mostly zeroing in on his old stomping grounds in the defensive line, which is probably the the strength of the team, but whatever.

Thanks to Myles Brennan’s injury, he didn’t have a quarterback competition to preside over with the offense, where Max Johnson is the undisputed starter, even after true freshman Garret Nussmeier threw for 308 yards and three touchdowns in Saturday’s final scrimmage; Johnson was 11-19 for a 125 yards and a score.

But Orgeron has since backed off that pledge to get down in the trenches with them.

The new coaches apparently are working just fine, at least in Orgeron’s eyes.

“At the beginning I wanted to be very hands-on with the defense, which I still do,” he said Saturday. “But I tell you what — Andre Carter is one great defensive line coach. I’ve turned the defensive line over to him. I told him that. He’s totally got it.

“The hands-on stuff was to implement everything, make sure it’s right. I still have an eye on it, still looking at all the film of the defense..

“But now I’m also able to be the head coach.”

Probably best that way.

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