Orgeron turns to recruiting to find better talent to stack up with Alabama
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU exhausted all of its options up front.
Call it crazy, but they each yielded the same results.
LSU was dominated in the trenches, an area that coach Ed Orgeron zeroed in on over the past year in his recruiting classes. Eleven linemen in the 2018 signing class, including three junior college players, but the Tigers could not stack up with top-ranked Alabama at the line of scrimmage.
“They’re a good team,” Orgeron said after No. 3 LSU was blanked by Alabama in Tiger Stadium. “We got beat at the line of scrimmage. We couldn’t block their defensive linemen.”
Case and point: Alabama notched five sacks of quarterback Joe Burrow. LSU’s offensive line — which has trotted out seven different starting combinations in nine games — had only surrendered 12 sacks entering the contest.
Even more pressing was the fact that the Crimson Tide’s defensive front put pressure on Burrow, forcing errant throws and a less-than-50-percent completion percentage. Two of the team’s main contributors were recruited by Orgeron — Ruston native Isaiah Buggs and Raekwon Davis, a target back in 2016.
“We’ve got to,” the coach said regarding recruiting better linemen.
LSU’s running game was stymied in dramatic fashion, too.
Thanks in part to the aforementioned Buggs and Davis, the team managed all of 12 yards, the longest run of the night — 11 — coming in the final quarter with the game considerably out of reach. Overall, the tandem of Nick Brosette and Clyde Edwards-Helaire were held in check with a .5 yards per carry average.
“Our offensive line got beat 1-on-1,” Orgeron explained. “We had max protection. Those guys wee beating us. They stunted us. We tried everything we possibly could — go full wide, max protect. We just got beat.”
Conversely, LSU’s defensive line ran into a brick wall cladded in crimson and white. Heisman favorite Tua Tagovailoa shredded the defense for 295 yards and two touchdowns and knotted a quarterback rating of 129.5.
Tagovailoa’s rifle in Alabama’s passing game was complemented by five-headed rushing attack that averaged 7.6 yards per touch. The solution will only come from reinforcements up front, Orgeron said.
“The table was set, but we got beat at the line of scrimmage. “We’ve got to get better. We need to recruit defensive linemen, get defensive linemen like them and recruit defensive linemen to beat Alabama at the line of scrimmage … You look at personnel and you’ve got to get better. They overpowered us and there’s nothing you can do but get better.”
LSU hosted several blue-chip prospects for this showdown on both the offensive and defensive line, including multiple commitments in the 2019 class up front like Kardell Thomas and Ray Parker. Also on campus was 5-star defensive tackle Ishmael Sopsher, the prized jewel out of Amite, La., that is choosing between the Tigers and the Crimson Tide.
Those are some of the ingredients to raise the level of play up front — if LSU is going to go toe-to-toe with Nick Saban’s team. With five offensive line commitments and one defensive line pledge, expect an emphasis on more big pieces to finish off the gumbo between now and National Signing Day.
“I know we have to get bigger, faster offensive linemen to block these guys,” Orgeron said. “I do believe we have an excellent recruiting class. We’re coming to find bigger, quicker defensive linemen to get where they’re at. We’re not there yet.”