LSU Football Coaching Staff "Back to Work" in Football Ops Facility After Two Month Confinement to Homes

Orgeron says team has installed offense and defense multiple times with players for repetition

Ed Orgeron was getting a little lonely at his house all by himself. For the last eight weeks all he's been able to do is talk to recruit after recruit or zoom call with players and coaches on his current staff, but not much interaction with the outside world.

That all changed starting last week.

One of the more important updates that was revealed during his weekly interview with Baton Rouge Radio show "Off the Bench" was that the coaching staff was allowed to return to work over on Skip Bertman Drive. For approximately the last two months, the coaches were confined to their homes and could only communicate by phone or "zoom" call.

This is the second week the coaches have been allowed back to their offices for work by the university, and Orgeron believes they are the first in the country to do so. With all of the coaches back in the facility, Orgeron said it feels like the start of a return to normalcy.

"It feels so good to be able to come back to work, I want to give a lot of credit to Scott Woodward and our president for allowing us to come back to work full time," Orgeron said. "We're wearing our masks, taking temperatures and following protocol to staying safe.

"It's just good to be back to work, the one that was happiest was me, I was by myself for eight weeks. This is my team, this is my family and these are my friends. We're a close group as a coaching staff, it's more than just a work relationship, it's a family and I've got some great men I'm working with."

One of the benefits to being back in one centralized location is the coaches can not only interact among one another more efficiently but with the players as well. The team finished up finals last week and as far as Orgeron knows, all signs are positive.

"We came through finals very well and now what we're doing is having one hour zoom meetings with our guys Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday," Orgeron said.

Monday and Wednesday is all about the fundamentals while Tuesday and Thursday is solely devoted to re-installing the offense and defense. 

The Tigers are currently on the third go around of installing both systems for repetition purposes and Orgeron thinks that by the time camp comes around, the players will have learned the installations four times over.

Being back in the offices couldn't have come at a better time as the staff has started the process of preparing for opponents. While the players were working on finals last week, Orgeron said the Tigers' staff installed a gameplan for their first opponent (UTSA) and have moved on to preparing for that Sept. 12 game against Texas.

"We've created the spring preparation for the fall exactly like we would for a game week," Orgeron said. "We have full scouting reports for first down, third down, red zone, goal line and we go through it all and take copious notes and put it in a book. When we get back in the season, we already have a preliminary gameplan because the basics aren't going to change."

The 15-0, national championship season has affected all facets of the LSU program, with the most long term affect being recruiting. That season, Orgeron said, allows the program to get its foot in the door with some of the top prospects in the country which makes all the difference in the world.

"It's really fun to see the recruits and the parents the first time they talk to me, when we Facetime and you see their eyes get wide and go 'oh that's coach O,'" Orgeron said. "Because of the success we've had, I give them a "Geaux Tigers" and they love it. It just opens the door to the best players in the country."

LSU has always wanted to control Louisiana, that's been its biggest priority. Yet of the 10 commits the Tigers have reeled in for the 2021 class, only one has come from "the Boot.”

The Tigers currently have three commits from Texas prospects, the most recent being quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and a variety of commitments from Florida to California, Georgia and Ohio. 

"It's outstanding," Orgeron said of LSU's national brand. "We're on the national stage this year, we're the elite team and they [recruits] want to come play with the elite players in the SEC West. During the zoom meetings with recruits, we show them our new facilities, we have the parents in there and it’s been great. We spend more time recruiting then we probably ever have."

While recruiting for the future is a priority, Orgeron has been working hard on filling the final three spots of the 2020 class and has landed JUCO linebacker Jabril Cox and versatile offensive lineman Liam Shanahan in the last month.

Orgeron thinks Shanahan has the versatility to play center, guard and tackle which was something very important to Orgeron throughout the recruiting process. He did say that the program is looking at other options to fill that final spot but didn't reveal which particular position the program is looking for.