Test time: You think you know your 2019 LSU Tigers?
Preseason football isn’t just limited to college teams getting ready for the upcoming season.
It’s for fans, also.
Like the players, they’ve got a month to learn ins and outs of their teams.
Which is why as a public service we’re offering the first-ever Tiger Details LSU preseason football quiz.
No, this isn’t your standard test.
We delve into a deep dive of little-known facts and it’s up to you in our 10-question multiple choice quiz to figure what’s baloney and what’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
More than likely, you won’t know most of the answers. But in the process, you’ll learn something about the 2019 Tigers before they open the season Aug. 31 against Georgia Southern.
Here we go and all the answers are at the end of the quiz:
1. When LSU quarterback Joe Burrow played on a fifth-grade basketball team, his father served as an interim coach in one game. Dad didn’t like something his son did, which led to a postgame argument. What did Joe do?
A. Dribble too much
B. Smack talk opponents
C. Launch too many 3-pointers
D. Tune out his interim coach
2. What is Tigers’ left offensive tackle Sahhdiq Charles’ favorite food item at LSU’s new nutrition center?
A. Beef tenderloin
B. Grilled red snapper
C. Fajitas
D. A hand-spun McFlurry
3. Who is LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s favorite back to watch?
A. Himself
B. Alvin Kamara
C. Derrius Guice
D. Ezekiel Elliott
4. What does Tigers’ freshman redshirt defensive end Jarell Cherry carry around his backpack?
A. His high school trophies
B. The latest novel he’s writing
C. Bricks
D. Textbooks
5. On September 24, LSU punter Zach Von Rosenberg turns 29 years old. Who or what will he be as old as?
A. LSU passing game coordinator Joe Brady
B. Twenty-one of the 32 punters who started in the NFL last season
C. A period in which LSU has had just five seasons in which a running back has caught 20 or more passes
D. All of the above
6. What swayed highly-recruited outside linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson of Dallas, Texas to sign with LSU?
A. Everything is bigger in Texas except Louisiana crawfish
B. His name is more naturally suited to south Louisiana than north Texas
C. LSU coach Ed Orgeron showed up at Chaisson’s house at 4 a.m. and followed him to the airport since Chaisson was leaving for a recruiting visit to another school
D. Chaisson knew he didn’t look good wearing University of Texas burnt orange
7. Orgeron’s “Green Team” is comprised of:
A. LSU’s four best pass rushers
B. Four Tigers who have yet to shower the entire preseason
C. Four Tulane transfers
D. Four extremely inexperienced true freshmen
8. The pace of LSU’s new offense is. . .
A. Making huddles obsolete
B. Getting LSU’s defense in shape
C. Assuring wide receivers and running backs depth is vital
D. All of the above
9. What was the inspiration for LSU trainer Jack Marucci’s idea for each player to have a “sleep pod” at his locker in the Tigers’ new futuristic locker room?
A. He watched too many science fiction movies where a visitor from another planet traveled to earth in an egg-like protective pod
B. Hearing Ed Orgeron snore while napping in his office, which sounded like a cruise ship foghorn
C. Observing inebriated vacationers passed out in beach chairs under umbrellas on Destin beaches
D. First-class section designs on extended commercial airline flights
10. In assessing the working relationship of 60-year old LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger and new 29-year passing game coordinator Joe Brady, what actor past or present did Orgeron compare to Ensminger?
A. Clint Eastwood, because when Ensminger recognizes a defensive formation of which he can take advantage he says “Go ahead, make my day” in his best Dirty Harry voice
B. Sean Connery, because Ensminger in his James Bond 007 voice always says he likes opposing defenses “shaken not stirred”
C. John Wayne, who never failed to portray being the toughest guy in the room
D. Tom Hanks, because Ensminger, somewhat like Hanks’ stranded character in the movie “Castaway” carries around a football named Wilson as a security blanket
The answers:
1. C
Burrow apparently loved shooting the long ball, but his dad as interim coach for the day didn’t agree with his shot selection.
“He didn’t want me to shoot 3s and I was a 3-point shooter,” Burrow said. “This was like when I was in the 5th grade, so nobody was really shooting 3s. But I was shooting them.
“We got into it outside in the parking lot after the game. He didn’t like me shooting 3s. I was like, `Dad, you’re not my coach, you’re just like out there.’
“He got really mad.”
2. D
Charles has already learned how to concoct his version of a McDonald’s McFlurry, thanks to the nutrition center’s soft-serve ice cream machine and condiments bar.
“It takes about 30 seconds,” Charles said. “Oreos on the bottom, ice cream in the middle, oreos on top. I hand spin it. Eat two a day.”
3. D
Edwards-Helaire fell in love with running back Ezekiel Elliott when he starred for Ohio State from 2013 to 2015.
The one play that made Edwards-Helaire an Elliott admirer was a vicious block in 2015 that Elliott made on Virginia Tech linebacker Deon Clark. It came on a 53-yard TD run by Ohio State’s Braxton Miller, a play highlight by Miller’s videogame spin move just as Elliott launched himself into the chest of the pursuing Clark.
“You can literally watch Zeke on that play and watch how he blocks,” Edwards-Helaire said. “It’s something different, the overall effort he gave. You don’t get that out of a lot of guys. It’s pretty cool.”
4. C
Since LSU has a media policy not allowing true freshmen or redshirt freshmen to talk to the media, we’ll let senior defensive end Breiden Fehoko reveal this gem about redshirt frosh Cherry.
“Jarrel was outside running this summer and one of the strength coaches (Jake Riedel) went to move Jarrel’s backpack (in the weight room),” Fehoko said. “It was super heavy, so he dragged the backpack.
“Jarrel comes in, lifts up his backpack and walks out,” Fehoko said. “Coach Riedel goes up to Jarrel and says, `Why is your bag so heavy? What classes are you taking?’
Cherry didn’t quite understand what Riedel was asking, so Riedel made himself clear.
“I tried to move your bag and it was heavy,” Riedel told Cherry. “What kind of textbooks you have in there?”
Cherry replied, “No Coach, I’ve got bricks in there.”
Fehoko shook his head and laughs.
“He’s crazy, he’s a freak of nature,” he said of Cherry. “He’s carrying bricks in a backpack around campus.”
5. D
Rosenberg, a former Zachary High star pitcher who got a late start on college football after toiling in the minor leagues for six seasons, knows his career path isn’t exactly normal or timely.
“My younger brother is married,” he said. “So many people I’m friends with from high school and even before that are dentists and doctors, some are in law school.
“I’m just trying to get through college and enjoying my time here at LSU getting to punt on Saturdays in Death Valley. Who can say that at my age?”
6. C
Orgeron knocked on the door of the Chaisson household at 4 in the morning hoping to make one last impression before Chaisson departed on a recruiting visit to Florida.
“He met me at my house and then followed me to the airport,” Chaisson said. “I was still wiping the crust off my eyes. You think we were dating the way he was following me around. That was true dedication.”
7. A
It’s the Tigers’ four best pass rushers on the field and in the starting blocks on third-and-long passing situations.
“It’s a `by invite only’ club,” Fehoko said. “It’s all the D-line and the outside linebackers. There’s no safeties in there. If we have safeties on the Green Team, that means there is a problem, we’re not getting a good rush.”
8. D
LSU’s new offense, with the pace dramatically quickened, is already having an obvious effect.
“I called for a huddle and it looked like we forgot what one was,” Orgeron said.
The defense barely has time to catch its breath.
“We have this thing when the ball is on the ground we’ve got to pick up `loose change’,” LSU safety JaCoby Stevens said. “There was one ball (in practice) that we deflected, so I went over to pick up the loose change and run it back. (Quarterback) Joe (Burrow) is running by me and getting set up (for the next snap).
“I’m like, `Oh my God.’
“I’m winded, but it’s a benefit for the defense because we’re getting in shape. Our offense is going to be a problem for other teams.”
Especially since new passing game coordinator Joe Brady is all about keeping his foot on the accelerator.
“We’ve been giving the defense fits because we have answers to everything,” LSU tight end Thaddeus Moss said of the cat-and-mouse game in preseason camp between the Tigers’ offense and defense. “If we do this, they do this. If they do this, then we do this.
“We’ve been the one attacking end instead of seeing what the defense does and reacting to it. The defense reacts to us. I love this offense. Everybody eats in this offense.”
9. D
Marucci saw the sleep pods in the first-class section of airplanes.
“My vision for the pods was finding a way we could put something in the dressing room that would help them with hydration, relaxation, meditation, sleep and recovery,” Marucci explained.
The Tigers now have a team-nap time between 12 and 2 daily in preseason. The players have given the sleep pods a collective “thumbs-up.”
“You walk in here and you don’t even think it’s a locker room,” Fehoko said. “You’re in first class.”
10. C
“Steve is like John Wayne when he walks in – tough, hard-nosed, doesn’t say much,” Orgeron said.
Burrow backs up Orgeron’s assessment of Ensminger.
“Coach E is a guy’s guy,” Burrow said. “I think Coach E would be a guy that if you got in a fight at the bar, you’d want him right next to you for sure.”
Scoring system
8 or more correct: You’re more than ready for the season. Advance directly to the weekend of the Alabama game.
5 to 7 correct: Need to show improvement by the first open date weekend
3 to 5: May need to hit the new Tiger Stadium beer concessions at the season opener
2 or less: Better start mental two-a-days immediately