COACH ‘O’, JOE BURREAUX & THE #1 RANKED TIGERS
No one saw this one coming. Sportscasters first started noticing the LSU football team after they beat the favored Texas Longhorns in the first game of the season. OK, that was a bit of a surprise, but the Tigers usually put up good football teams.
But those who watched carefully began to see a different type of LSU team than we were all used to. The first thing that stood out was just how fast the offense was moving after the ball was snapped. Boom, boom and the play was over with a nice gain recorded. Then, before you knew it, they line up and do it again! Wow! This is not the LSU Tiger football team that we have grown accustomed to seeing over the past 20 years or so. Not at all.
Everyone in Baton Rouge loved Les Miles. ‘The Hat’ won hearts and minds all round ‘Cajunland’. What he didn’t win was enough football games to suit the avid fans in South Louisiana using an outdated offensive scheme that should have been shelved years ago.
You will notice that Coach Miles is no longer stuck in that old rut now that he is the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks. It may take a couple of years, but watch out for the Jayhawks under Les Miles in the future.
Along comes Coach Ed Orgeron, a genuine Cajun from South Louisiana, who convinced the powers that be at LSU to give him a shot at the head coaching spot, something which Orgeron had coveted all his life; and the rest is history, with the story still unfolding. In just his second full season as head coach, LSU just got named the number one team in the nation on the Associated Press poll, the first time the Tigers have been in that position since LSU won the national championship way back in 2007.
Ed Orgeron was savvy enough to surround himself with some of the smartest assistant coaching talent in the NCAA, anywhere. He brought in offensive innovator Joe Brady from the New Orleans Saints to aid OC Steve Ensminger with the passing game and he kept defensive guru Dave Aranda on the other side of the ball.
Then Coach ‘O’ got very lucky. Way up in Ohio a young man named Joe Burrow realized that he was never going to get a chance to play football on the level he desired if he stayed at Ohio State, so, he decided to transfer and in 2018 ended up in Baton Rouge as starting quarterback for the LSU Tigers, who in 2019 are suddenly contenders for the FBS National Championship and Joe Burrow is one of the leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy.
LSU remains undefeated so far this season along with Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Penn State. Of course the biggest game of the year will occur on November 9th when Nick Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide will host the LSU Tigers and Coach ‘O’ in Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa on what we hope will be a balmy clear afternoon for the much anticipated contest.
Alabama has dominated LSU for the past several years and the inability to beat the Crimson Tide is said to be one of the main factors that led to the dismissal of Les Miles. Needless to say, if Coach ‘O’ manages to beat Saban and the Tide in 2019, he will probably secure his position at LSU for at least the next decade.
Both teams have a bye week before the big confrontation so that the drama will have a chance to reach the boiling point by kickoff time on Saturday. Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is nursing a high ankle sprain he suffered during the Tennessee game for which he has had a minor ‘tightrope’ surgery and remains questionable for the LSU game.
Backup Tide quarterback Mac Jones started in place of Tua for the Arkansas game and completed 18 of 22 passes for 235 yards in the air and 3 touchdowns, all with no picks. Not too shabby for a backup! If Tua can’t go, the Tide will still be in good hands for the contest.
Joe Burrow will be ready. He has learned the playbook as well as how to eat Gumbo, Jambalaya and Etouffee, and is even rumored to be considering changing his last name to Burreaux!
This November 9th is shaping up to be one of the great SEC games of all time!
