Leadership council, 24-hour rule and cliches: LSU adopted Coach O's persona

BATON ROUGE, La. — Two days removed from a gut-wrenching 22-21 victory over the No. 7-ranked team in the country, coach Ed Orgeron’s demeanor hadn’t changed a bit. He remains humble, focused and utters the same football cliches regarding the team and making necessary improvements if his unbeaten Tigers are going to continue down that same path.

“It was a great team win for us,” Orgeron said, pointing out the character, poise and leadership that his players demonstrated. “It was going to take 60 minutes and it took every second of the game to finish, but we finished.”

Orgeron’s 60-minute approach is complemented by his 24-hour rule. The team watches film from the previous Saturday, then it’s onto the next opponent. No questions asked. So after upending Auburn in The Plains, there’s only a day’s time to embrace the national spotlight shining brightly on Baton Rouge before it’s time to begin to dissect Louisiana Tech.

This was the regiment installed by Orgeron, who has often credited his mentors Pete Carroll (Southern Cal) and Jimmy Johnson (Miami) for the inspiration. There’s a litter of specifically designed days during the week leading up to Saturdays, including “Tell The Truth Monday,” “Competition Tuesday,” “Turnover/No Turnover Wednesday” and “No Repeat Thursday” before “Focus Friday” prior to game day.

Through three games, competition has yielded results. Twenty-eight different players have started games, including new names at key positions such as right tackle and outside linebacker. LSU has yet to turn the ball over. It’s the only FBS program in the country who can claim that through this part of September. Meanwhile, Orgeron’s team boasts an SEC-leading plus-7 mark in the turnover margin.

While the statistics certainly give Orgeron’s coaching style credence, it’s Fridays that are quietly becoming the most important day on the schedule. The emphasis on focus each Friday has reared itself on Saturdays, and the 24-hour rule forces the coaches and players not to overlook an opponent. The team understands the significance of being 3-0 with victories over a pair of top-10 opponents, but Orgeron’s philosophy hasn’t allowed them to ever peak too far ahead on their schedule or dwell too much on their prior success.

Anyone in or around Baton Rouge knows that at LSU, it’s referred to as blocking out the noise.

“The main thing Coach O stresses to us is blocking out the noise,” senior running back Nick Brossette said. “They love you at one point and then they start dogging you. You need to block it out and stay focused and keeping have fun, doing the little things to get us where we want to be.

“I remember my freshman year, we went undefeated ’til Alabama. We were the No. 2 team in the country, then we went on a losing streak. Everyone was dogging us. I saw it with my own eyes, so sooner or later, we have to have that talk and let the team know we have to focus in and we can’t let it get to us. We have to block it out and keep balling every day.”

Focus will be paramount if LSU is going to remain on what outsides view as a surprising path.

The difference between that 2015 LSU team and this year’s squad is, of course, the head coach. No, not who the coach is, but rather his style.

There have been subtle changes in Orgeron’s approach from his first season at the helm in 2017 through now. Once criticized for inserting himself too heavily into his coordinators’ duties, Orgeron has taken a significant step back in his second season in Baton Rouge and second stint overall as an SEC head coach. Now, he has a longtime friend and confidant calling plays on offense in Steve Ensminger, his hand-selected coordinator who replaced Matt Canada after one season. Dave Aranda is in his third year at LSU and has established himself as one of — if not — the top defensive minds in all of college football.

Orgeron instead is content playing the role of CEO and he’s relinquished part of his job to his leadership. That responsibly is establishing a culture in the building, and to that, LSU’s coach has turned to a 12-or-13-member leadership council. The group is comprised of upperclassmen such as Devin White, Foster Moreau, Greedy Williams, Garrett Brumfield, Rashard Lawrence, Jonathan Giles, Stephen Sullivan, Breiden Fehoko, John Battle, Ed Paris and Brossette, to name a few.

That group was formed to provide Orgeron with the pulse of his team — if practice should be lighter, if players are banged up or does the team need to Twenty-eight even harder. That rapport between coach and veteran players has allowed the leadership council to impart Orgeron’s message more effectively this season.

“Coach O — he’s the same,” White began. “He’s the same coach. He just has a new offensive coordinator, a couple more analysts, but he’s the same Coach O as when he got the job. He’s leaning more on the leadership of older guys. We don’t have many seniors, so he’s leaning on us. We relay the messages to the players better than the coaches do. We keep everything in line. We have a lot of guys who have won state championships, who know how to prepare, and the younger guys look at us and how we handle everything. They want to do what we do, and that’s the No. 1 thing.”

Even more impressive is how the leadership council and, subsequently the rest of LSU’s roster, has not only absorbed Orgeron’s teachings but embraced them. Part of that is on the truth between the coaches and players, both sides willingly putting their faith in another and it paying off.

Orgeron has certainly had to learn to allow his coaches to coach freely. Once he mastered the art, he put his trust into the players to lead. That purpose has manifested into a sense of purpose, an identify in the locker room and, a team united.

“It starts with him and it comes down to us,” Brossette began. “He always tells us that it’s up to us, that we have to be leaders out there, to focus on little things and keep doing those little things to get us there. We’ve jelled with each other and we’re trying to win for this program, this state, and for Coach O.”

When Orgeron was interviewing for the vacant LSU job, the other candidates floated around included national championship-winning coach Jimbo Fisher, then at Florida State and a name that’s circled in connection to the program in the past, as well as Tom Herman, then at Houston, as the offensive whiz and momentous young contender in line for a high-profile gig.

Coming off a 6-2 stint as the interim coach — for the second time in his career for that matter — Orgeron wasn’t viewed as the sexy hire. He was in the mix because he reversed the course of the 2016 season, but letdowns at home to Florida and Alabama derailed his chances to pull off an 8-0 finish and give Athletic Director Joe Alleva no other option to but to hand him the job.

A polarizing move at the time, Orgeron was named the head coach of the Tigers. A certain sector of the college football world viewed Orgeron as the underdog of those candidates, and rightfully so. Twenty-eight that span, he has notched seven wins at Top-25 foes in 24 games, the most of any coach in the school’s history. His team’s defeat of Auburn on Saturday marked LSU’s second victory over a top-10 opponent in a three-week span, the first time any team has pulled off such a feat in 42 years.

Orgeron has thrived as an underdog. He hasn’t shied away from that label, only thrived off it. So has his team. Those in Vegas considered Miami and Auburn as superior teams, which was fine, so long that you were a player in LSU’s clubhouse, learning how to block out the noise and learning to trust in Orgeron’s process.

“A lot of people didn’t know what type of team LSU was going to be,” outside linebacker Michael Divinity said. “We focused on being a better team, pushing us to strive even better. Into the Miami week, everyone chose Miami, so we came out there with a chip on our shoulder. This is LSU football and we’re going to fight like Tigers on the field. This game (at Auburn) showed what LSU Tigers can do through adversity. We can fight four quarters and we did. It’s about staying focused, taking care of the things we need to take care of. Monday through Friday, it’s about getting coached, but on Saturday it’s 1-on-1 and who’s the better man in front of you.”

That willingness to fight — and keep fighting — has been instrumental to the start of LSU’s season. It’s put the team in a position to glance at that enlarged chip on its shoulder twice in three games. Moving forward, that won’t be the case.

LSU now sits at No. 6 in the country, the highest ranking in the Orgeron era. The Tigers are knocking on the door at the College Football Playoff spots, which of course is the end game that nobody on the roster will mention, but naturally covets. Because they’re blocking out the noise, perhaps playing the role of underdog — which has worked well so far — remains an option.

As far as they’re concerned, the team is still a ways away from its goal.

“It’s a great place to be — at the bottom of a ladder, because each week we’re going to climb,” White said. “We started at No. 25. We’re No. 6 right now, but we’re still not where we want to be. We still haven’t played our best ball yet team-wise in all three phases. We need to keep improving. To be honest, it feels good to get the respect we’ve earned. We’ve earned it, but we’re not complacent. We want to get better and better.”

It’s fair to assume that Orgeron and his team aspire to grab hold of that No. 1 spot. For now, it’s being held warm by none other than archival Alabama. Behind the champs are the runners-up, Georgia, who leapfrogged Clemson for the No. 2 spot entering the fourth week of the college football season.

As fitting as it is, LSU will have the chance to make up ground on those two SEC foes in a matter of weeks. In four Saturdays, Georgia will make its way to Baton Rouge for what will likely be a top-10 showdown. Depending on the outcome of that dogfight, the Tigers will get their crack at the Tide following a bye week on Nov. 3.

Naturally, the attention to focus won’t allow members of the team or coaching to look past Louisiana Tech. Ole Miss isn’t even on the radar yet — except for the thought it’ll be an 8:15 local time kickoff in Tiger Stadium. So when pestered with the notion of going toe-to-toe with Georgia or ‘Bama, Orgeron has remained coy. He doesn’t offer a football cliche a boisterous endorsement of his squad. Instead, he resolves that his team must improve, another signal that this isn’t the same Coach O; it’s a more calculated coach with a very rigid plan in mind.

“We have a ways to go,” Orgeron said. “Those are some good football teams. We can’t think about them yet. I’ve watched them. They’re excellent. They have good athletes, great coaches, and we have a ways to go to get there.”

In other words, the second win over a top-10 has yet to faze LSU’s coach. As expected, it hasn’t affected his team either.

Like their coach, the players are fully bought into the product Orgeron is selling: focus, improvement and self-belief. From the coach to his leadership council to the entire 85-man roster, these unbeaten Tigers remain hungry. At 3-0, there’s a greater goal at stake. Yet in typical Coach O fashion, nobody is overlooking Louisiana Tech or entertaining their position in the rankings more than they did a day, week or month ago.

“Overall, our team’s biggest test is probably seeing how we play after a big win,” tight end Foster Moreau said. “We’ve played in the big opener game. We’ve played in the big SEC game that came down to the wire. We’ve got to keep testing this team and keep seeing what we’re doing after big wins and what we’ll be able to do if we have a down week. We have to fix things. We’re not perfect, but we’re trying to get there.”