Ed Orgeron Says LSU Football Faces Toughest Challenge to Date in No. 10 Florida

Gator offense has potential to cause LSU defense fits behind quarterback Kyle Trask

Ed Orgeron knows his team is facing a tall task when the Tigers travel to Gainesville to face No. 10 Florida this week. The Gators come into the week four matchup averaging 464 yards of offense, just a shade lower than LSU’s 467 yards a contest that’s good for third in the SEC.

Dan Mullen led teams always seem to show up against the purple and gold even in defeat. Orgeron had taken two out of four from Florida since taking over as interim coach and is in a similar position to that 2017 win the Tigers has over the Gators. 

Fresh off a loss to Troy that knocked the LSU program out of the top 25 and put the future under Orgeron in some doubt, the Tigers bounced back with a key victory in the Swamp over Florida 17-16. It was one of those wins that helped pick the program up.

This go around, Orgeron said all of the focus needs to be putting together a gameplan for this specific Gator squad and making sure the players fully understand their assignments.

“We gotta coach them better. There are some things going on in that film, some busts guys running wide open,” Orgeron said. “Not the right calls on the goal line. We didn't block some people. So as coaches we gotta clean stuff up, man.”

LSU faces a Florida defense that surrenders almost as many points and yardage as the Tigers do, which could make for quite the shoot out this weekend. On offense, Orgeron said he has great respect for Mullen and the Gator offense, which is among the best in the conference.

“I've known Dan for a long time, been against him, and we got our work cut out for us. He's an excellent coach,” Orgeron said. “He’s got one of the best personnel we're going to be against. I've got a lot of respect for the Florida Gators and who they are.”

The offense starts with the “two Kyle’s” in second-year starting quarterback Kyle Trask and tight end Kyle Pitts. 

“Kyle Trask is an excellent quarterback. Kyle Pitts is an excellent tight end,” Orgeron said.  “You can call him a tight end, but a receiver, one of the best players in America we're going to see. We know Florida has got a lot of speed.”

The two have connected 17 times for 274 yards and seven touchdowns and will present a tough challenge to the middle of the LSU defense. There are many options LSU could consider when trying to guard Pitts, including double teams or possibly sliding Derek Stingley to the slot in order to cover the Gators’ biggest threat.

Orgeron said that while those two options are something to consider, it could also force LSU into some misalignments defensively. If there’s one thing the Tigers want to avoid this weekend against Florida, it’s finding themselves with missed assignments and miscommunication.

“We're still early in the game plan, but a guy like that you may have to double. You may have to put Stingley on him,” Orgeron said. “But what happens is when he lines up on tight ends and he lines up on a lot of places, you get a lot of misalignments and you get a lot of confusion. So I don't know if that's a possibility. He warrants putting your best player on him. He warrants double teams, he's that good.”

While every single member of the LSU defense will want to drastically improve this week, one player in particular is safety JaCoby Stevens. The senior safety who’s sported No. 7 in 2020 found himself being targeted on multiple occasions against Missouri.

The greatest attribute of Stevens’ game is to get after the quarterback and through three games, LSU hasn’t found a way to get him close to the line of scrimmage where he can be most effective. 

That’s a conversation that Orgeron has had not only with Stevens but with the coaches as well.

“JaCoby Stevens did have some miscues, but we're trying to find him the best place to play. Jacoby is an outstanding rusher,” Orgeron said. “That's one of his best attributes. Last year we rushed him. He was playing outside linebacker, and that's where he was most effective. I had a meeting with him today. He knows there's some things that he has to work on.“