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LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 19, 2016

Ed Orgeron

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Florida - 16, LSU - 10

COACH ORGERON: Tough battle. Came up short. Guys fought to the very end. Obviously total yardage 423 to 270. We shot ourselves in the foot and had a lot of opportunities in the red zone. We didn't convert any points. Two turnovers were really costly in the football game. Guys fought the whole way, gave us a chance to win the football game. As bad as we played, was probably the worst we've played since we started our new season.

And we had a chance to win the game at the end. It just came down to execution. Gotta give it to our guys. They fought. We always thought we would win the game as poorly as we played.

Q. Was there confusion on the last play? Talk about the last play call.
COACH ORGERON: No it just came down to execution. We just didn't execute right.

Q. Can you speak to having four long drives and three points total. What happened?
COACH ORGERON: The turnovers. Not executing at the right time. Poor red zone play. Obviously the turnovers and the field goals, (indiscernible) snap hurt us. We didn't play well on special teams, field position hurt us. Give them credit, good defense. We should have -- we should have won it with better execution.

Q. When did you make the decision about if Leonard would play today?
COACH ORGERON: It was a game-time decision. Leonard wanted to play. He struggled all week in practice. He came to me right before the game and said, Coach, I want to play. I want to support my team. You can see he wasn't full speed.

Q. Did you think it had anything to do with an early start? Or why do you think some of those mistakes and things came?
COACH ORGERON: I don't think so. I think we just didn't execute. We had practiced well. Just came down to execution. Can't make an excuse. Didn't matter when we start.

We were ready to play. Gotta be ready to play as far as a good team. We just didn't make the plays when we needed to.

Q. Was it a case you let a team have as many shots as they do and (indiscernible)?
COACH ORGERON: Yeah, you think you could have put them away, could have put them away -- had a big enough lead with the defense we had, that we could have won a football game. But we didn't put them away when we had the opportunities to do it.

You've got to make plays on any team. We knew they were explosive. We knew at any point in time, we had talked about it at halftime, we have to stay explosive on offense because we know they can be an explosive team. We had to stay explosive on offense, because they can be explosive on their offense and it happened. It happened with a big bump.

Q. How much did Kendell not being in there hurt you?
COACH ORGERON: You could tell it was a difference. But it's part of football. We had to step up, and I would say we missed it.

Q. You have a short week before Texas A&M. How do you get your guys over this and get ready to play?
COACH ORGERON: We've got to go one game at a time. We promise we'll take this season one game at a time. We're 4-2. This is game six, it's game seven. We'll get ready to play after that.

Q. How on the loss is this on the season?
COACH ORGERON: It's tough. It's a tough loss. Especially the way we lost. Have a chance to win. It's fourth down there. We're not going to lie, we thought we were going to win the football game. We didn't execute right and they got to take it way from -- it would have been a great victory for all of them.

Q. What exactly was wrong on the execution on the last play?
COACH ORGERON: Just the back went the wrong way. We had a little short toss called. The back went the wrong way. Although he made a good effort. But just wasn't executed right.

Q. You're up 7-3, you're driving you get one there --
COACH ORGERON: Yeah, that was the difference in the game right there. One of the turning points of the game. Up 7-3 go up 14-3 with the great defense we have. We could do some things that to move the football take care of the just to get it done.

Q. Their 98-yard touchdown, what was the breakdown there?
COACH ORGERON: Got beat. Got beat one-on-one. We talked about one-on-one matchups, our speed against their speed. We got beat.

Q. There was a number of missed tackles.
COACH ORGERON: Very uncharacteristic of them. Going into the game we knew Florida's backs were as good as we face. Probably the only team that had better backs was us. We emphasized tackling all week. I think missing Kendell in there hurt us a little bit. But uncharacteristic. We were not a good tackling team tonight. It's something we have to fix.

Q. You talked about this team having one heartbeat, but clearly it wasn't all there today and the team is missing something. Can you quite put your finger on what that is?
COACH ORGERON: We just didn't execute. Guys were ready to go. We had a good week of practice. We played a good football team today. We weren't clicking on all cylinders and it showed.

Q. The skirmish before the game, was Leonard going to play anyway? There was a report that he'd play because he got motivated by the skirmish?
COACH ORGERON: He didn't say that to me. He just came to me before the dressing room, before the game in the dressing room, said, Coach I want to play.

Q. That was after the skirmish, right?
COACH ORGERON: Yes.

Q. What did you make of that, the skirmish beforehand? What did you think about that?
COACH ORGERON: We don't need that. I don't know what happened out there. I wasn't out there. That's not the way the game is won. Don't need it.

Q. Did Josh say what happened on that messed-up field goal? Was it a botched snap, a botched hold?
COACH ORGERON: Yeah, I didn't see it. I just saw it was messed up.

Q. Your depth at tackle, defensive tackle, did you feel you were getting worn down there?
COACH ORGERON: Again, I have to look at the film, but obviously they were driving the ball in the middle. We were getting knocked back for the first time. They've got a good offensive line. The backs run the ball really hard. Before I say anything, I really want to look at the film.

Q. Did you see anything during the week or even before the game that would indicate to you that maybe your team was a little flat? Did you see anything like that?
COACH ORGERON: No, they were ready to go. We had one of our best practices on Wednesday and Thursday. And this morning got up early. Everybody was early to the meetings. Maybe a little distracted, maybe a fight and stuff like that but I thought we were ready to go.

Q. The idea about the Sugar Bowl being in play, any of that, you all think you did a good job blocking that out?
COACH ORGERON: Nothing was mentioned in our room about that. It was all about game six and the task at hand. There was nothing ever mentioned about that.

Q. Prior to this game there's a lot of back and forth, whether it be fans, social media whatever. Did you feel like there was too much emotion in this game?
COACH ORGERON: I don't know that. Emotion is good if you use it in the right way. I think we need to learn how to bounce back from success. We had a lot of success on the road against Arkansas. We came back and obviously didn't bounce back against a very tough team. We knew this was going to be a tough road. You play Arkansas and Florida and Alabama back to back. That's part about being in the SEC we need to play better.

Q. This is a short week. Does it help or hurt?
COACH ORGERON: It is what it is. We're going to go after it.

Q. After Guice's have fumbled down there early, it seemed like it was a long time before he came back in. Is that like punishment or what?
COACH ORGERON: No, it was not. It was a rotation. And again, Luke handles the rotation. If it was punishment it wasn't talked about in the headsets.

Q. Special teams has often made a difference in Florida-LSU games. How much do you feel that was also true today?
COACH ORGERON: We didn't play very well today on special teams. Having two turnovers in there is unacceptable. We need to play better on special teams. We have athletes. We should be better in that area.

Q. What did you think about Danny's performance, just first reactions there?
COACH ORGERON: He made some plays. He did some good things. Missed some throws also. Was not as effective as he could have been. But I'll tell you what, he led us down that field and put us in position to win the game. That fourth-down play was a hell of a play. It was a hell of a call by Coach Ensminger and a hell of a throw and catch and protection. That was a big play in the game.

Q. Any thoughts about the last two plays? They're such a good defense in the trenches. Maybe a point to spread them out a little?
COACH ORGERON: You can second-guess that, sure. And I'm going to say this, I let those guys manage it, and we talked about it, we were going to go run it in. We thought we could get -- we thought we can get it. And maybe we should have spread it out a little bit. Obviously hindsight is 20/20.

Q. Did you weigh in on that final play?
COACH ORGERON: I weighed in on all the plays, and we thought we could run it in, yes.

Q. You said you start a new season and everything. With high expectations for a team that has four losses at this point, how disappointing is it?
COACH ORGERON: We're 4-2 as far as I know. That's all we've done. We focus on that, we're 4-2. We've got Texas A&M. We promise we'll finish the season strong, and we'll talk about one game at a time that's all we're doing.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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