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LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 11, 2019

Ed Orgeron

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

ED ORGERON: Hello everybody. Great win. Total team effort. Excited for our team and excited for the state of Louisiana, excited for LSU, all the former players, all the former coaches, everyone that's been involved and contributed to LSU. What a great day for our LSU family.

Total team effort, that's what it was going to take. Preparation, mindset and confidence. We had it going into the week, we felt we were the better team the whole time, but we knew we was going to have to go out there and prove it and we did.

I thought our offensive line played phenomenal. James Craig has done a great job. To see the transformation of our offensive line from one year to the next has been really remarkable. And give him credit and give Lloyd Cushenberry and David Lewis the leadership that they have done with that offensive line, very proud of them.

The play of Clyde Edwards-Helaire as we all know was phenomenal, one of the best efforts I've ever seen of a football player in my 35 years of coaching, and also Joe Burrow, those guys were great on offense.

On Defense K'Lavon Chaisson had his best game, 10 tackles, three tackles for loss. The interception of Patrick Queen he got right before the half helped us win the game. And the fumble recovery by Ray Thornton I thought those were some good stuff.

We talked to the team, today is Tell the Truth Monday and although that we won a big game we didn't play our best for 60 minutes. I thought we played our best for the first half, at some parts of the game we played well in the second half, some parts of the game we didn't. And I'm going to challenge our guys to play their best for 60 minutes so that's what we're going to talk about today.

On to Ole Miss. We're going to treat this week just like any other week. We're going to go through the process. Today's Tell the Truth Monday, we're going to enjoy the win, we have a 24-hour rule and then press on to Ole Miss.

I'll tell you a little bit about them. First of all, they put this game on their calendar. This is a game that they want to win. This is rivalry game, for them, they want to beat LSU, this is a team they would like to beat, along with Mississippi State, and we know we're going to get their best shot. They play great at home, it's going to be a great crowd, it's going to be a great challenge for our football team.

On offense, they're a spread offense, they're very, very difficult to stop on offense, they have an excellent running game. 247 yards rushing per game, they had pled by quarterback John Plumlee, number 10, dual-threat quarterback, elusive runner, has almost 800 yards rushing, second in the SEC in yards per carry and seven touchdowns. Jerrion Ealy is a kid that we recruited, a dynamic runner, a dynamic back. Elijah Moore is their leading wide receiver.

On defense they're a 3-4 they moved from a 4-3 to a 3-4, there's six returning starters, they're only giving up 24 points game, 123 rushing, 274. Benito Jones is an excellent defensive linemen, I tried to recruit him, know him well. Sam Williams is a good rusher has sacks this year. Very solid on special teams.

We're very proud off our football team and we are happy for all the things that we have accomplished. But still we got to focus on one game at a time, we have not by far reached our goal, there will be bigger games down the road for us to play in and this is the biggest game we're playing in because it's our next opponent. Any questions?

Q. You mentioned the 24-hour rule. What have the last 24 hours been like for you and the team?
ED ORGERON: Been great. Been great. Went home Saturday night, me and Kelly, had a ham sandwich and some chips and watched Sportscenter. I mean, it was a great night. But yesterday was good watching the film, everybody was really in a good mood, but after you watch the film there's some things that we, you know, we have a competitive staff, there's some things that we need to get better at.

Obviously I can't wait to see the team today, I know they probably enjoyed the last couple days but it's time to get to business today and get to work.

Q. Sometimes when players say things it seems like maybe they don't mean it. But your guys saying we haven't arrived, this is not our end goal, Joe Burrow Rashard Lawrence, it seems like they believe it. Do you get that?
ED ORGERON: They believe it. They believed we were going to win all week. They knew what we were shooting for, we don't talk about it but, you know, we want to win. We want to win and Ole Miss is in our way. That's it. We want to win.

Q. What was power hour like Sunday night?
ED ORGERON: Phenomenal.

Q. Obviously you guys got a big commitment as well?
ED ORGERON: Phenomenal. And recruiting is going very well right now. Our coaching staff and our support staff has done a phenomenal job. There's a lot of guys that want to come to LSU right now, we're going to have the best players coming to LSU. Also the 2021 class there was a lot of players at that game and there will be a lot of players this week at the game, guys are coming more and more to watch us play and like what they see. It's been a great response on the phone.

Q. Couple things, how much did you guys study the Clemson game that Alabama played against them and glean anything from that and, two, were you surprised at how much -- it seems like you really were able to create a lot of confusion with your formations. Were you surprised that you were able to be that effective doing it?
ED ORGERON: First of all, we did study Clemson. We did study Clemson in the summer extensively. I don't think we studied them that much last week. We have confidence in our scheme, especially offensively. There were some things on that film that I had never seen before done to that team. And was I surprised? I thought we could do it, but we had to go out and execute it. I thought it was very well executed. Especially when they had 11 seconds left, the play to Clyde, that was a very difficult play to defend against that coverage, so I thought that Coach Steve Ensminger and Joe Brady had the right things called and they did a tremendous job against a very good defense and against a very good defensive coach.

Q. Going back to recruiting for a second. You talked a lot about wanting to recruit Louisiana, obviously a ton during the past, what is your strategy with developing relationships with high school programs around the state and has it gotten easier to recruit in the state since you've been here?
ED ORGERON: You know we call high school coaches every Thursday. We have a high school coaches pow wow every Thursday. We wish them good luck, I have their record in front of me, I know who they're playing, they love it. I believe we have a great, about as good a relationship with most high schools in the state since I've been here. They are all pulling for us, they all text me, they all in communication about recruiting. I talked to several coaches this morning, some of the top players.

So I think that we're doing a better job in the state of Louisiana than we ever have.

Q. As a freshman my first LSU game was 1977 Ensminger was the quarterback, Carlos Carson caught five touchdowns it was 77-0. We never thought we would see what we're seeing now though and I'm just curious, because he was already here we can't talk to him, but what does Steve say about how this has been and his role in it and what would you say about him the conversations you're having and his role?
ED ORGERON: About the job he's been doing? Phenomenal. He's like our general in there. He's steady, Steve doesn't want any credit, Steve loves the LSU Tigers. I'll never forget the day that we hired him, I mean we named him offensive coordinator and he said, I'm going to do it and people don't believe I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. And he's doing it. And I think it was a great victory for him. Coming back on -- well going on the plane I told him how I felt. I felt that we got our guns loaded, we're going to win this football game, I felt confident and I told that to several coaches. And when we got back there was, I guess several thousand fans at the airport and he said, Man, I ain't never seen nothing like this before.

So he's very proud, but he's humble, he's on to work today, don't want any credit, just on to work, let's go beat Ole Miss. Steve's very mature, very smart. He's a team player. He's let Joe be involved as much as I've ever seen an offensive coordinator let a passing game coordinator be involved. Very unselfish. Much like our team.

Q. The deep ball that Stingley got beat on, what happened because it looked like he turned to the sideline and got distracted. What happened?
ED ORGERON: Yeah, well it was a good job on their part and something that we have to cover. We had it covered, but we didn't cover it enough. What he did, he clapped and he looked over. Well, look over, they're changing the play, so our guys look over to change the play. So clapped, he fake looked over and the guy ran a fade on him. That was not Derek's fault at all, that was something that we should have covered more with him, it's something we have to fix in our system. There was no way -- he was doing what he was coached to. That's not his fault, I got to take the blame for that.

Q. LSU/Alabama game has a lot of talk in the trenches, O-line, D-line. Ya'll watched the film, how do you feel like those two sides played?
ED ORGERON: Phenomenal. I just, I was so proud of our offensive line. The first play we have a double team, a bump combo, we won it. We won it very well. And I just I thought those guys fought, they battled, they wasn't overwhelmed. Obviously Alabama made some plays, they got a couple first round picks up there. But I thought our line fought, I was very proud of them I felt like they didn't run the ball, they had 137 yards rushing on us, which is too much, but last year they had over 200, they ran the ball in between the tackles, we couldn't come them. So I thought both sides of the line of scrimmage played very well, especially in the middle.

Q. Two part question but pretty simple one. Do you ever get calls or inquiries from other people in coaching who maybe they their first big job didn't go as well as they had hoped but they always believed if they got in the right circumstances a second chance it would go a lot better and the second part is just, do you, I'm sure you would have loved to have killed it in your first job, but do you like the kind of moral of your story about learning and growing and having a --
ED ORGERON: Sure. First of all, not many coaches call me. I don't know why. I can't answer that. But I don't call much coaches either. I got my staff here and those are the guys I talk to. I go home and talk to Kelly and my kids and that's about it.

Ole Miss was a great opportunity for me as a young coach -- I wasn't that young, but it was my first job. It was in the SEC, I learned a lot of things. I learned how to do things, I learned how not to do things. So I'm very appreciative of that job. I don't like the results, but you know what, it prepared me for down the road to Coach Cowher told me, you're not going to figure out what type of coach you are until you're 50, 51. I didn't want to believe that, but it just takes awhile. Especially when you get your butt beat you're going to learn how to get better. And I do believe that that job trained me for the job that we're doing today. So I'm appreciative of it.

Q. From Saturday's game on third downs on defense it looked like K'Lavon had one of his better games. What you did see from him there and how effective did y'all approach third downs?
ED ORGERON: I do believe that K'Lavon had one of his best games. He's healthy, we let him rush, we didn't stunt him a bunch, we came around the edge, we gave him a free rush to go outside the tackle, inside the tackle. He made a great play on third down with the tackle pulled, that was a big stop for him and I file feel like he's coming into his own right now.

Q. You kept Dave Aranda from Texas A&M, are you confident you can keep Joe Brady from leaving and what might that entail?
ED ORGERON: You know, just this is Joe's first full-time job. And I do believe he's very loyal to LSU, I do believe he likes what's going on at LSU, and obviously we're going to compete to keep him. A guy like that is going to have opportunities, but we're going to compete as best that we can to keep him. All those things are going to happen after the season. We want -- Joe's worried about breaking down Ole Miss's coverages right now so he's not even thinking about that stuff. But after the season, we have coaches that are going to get chances to go elsewhere, but the ones that we want to keep we're going to fight like heck to keep them.

Q. I saw picture of the people putting signs in your yard congratulating you. Anybody ever put a for sale sign in your yard?
ED ORGERON: Oh, no, I don't think they had the ... to do that (laughing).

Q. Anyway to that end, you have seen both sides of this. You've had the praise, you've had the criticism, you know everyone's loving you and are team right now but does this help motivate you and drive you to know you're only as good as your last game your last season?
ED ORGERON: No question. You got to keep going. And Pete Carroll told me this, Ed, don't read it. When you do well, it's going to make you too high. When you do bad it will make you too low. You got to stay in the middle. So I just stay in the middle. It's not about me, it's about our team. There's a lot of good things that have happened to us, we got Joe Brady, got Joe Burrow, we got an excellent staff, this is just a culmination of a lot of hard work.

Q. You went six defensive back sets on those third downs. That's something made for Alabama or is that something you could see yourself using more?
ED ORGERON: Well you seen the receivers they had. We could have put 12 in it sometimes. But that was some of the best receivers we seen. So I think that's part of it.

Q. What is your opinion on your players live streaming and things in your locker room after the game?
ED ORGERON: I wish that wouldn't happen. That shouldn't happen. And I addressed its player that did it, he felt bad about it. They are so used to having those phones on them all the time, I mean, we have pregame meal and I said, Okay, will you turn your phones off, just for a little bit, so we can say the prayer. So we say the prayer and, boom, they're back on their phones. So you know I think that's just the product of today. We all, everybody carries their phone with them all the time. I don't think it was done with mal-intent or nothing like that. So I addressed it the with young man, I don't think it's going to happen again.

Q. And as far as what got out, a lot of people, a lot of your fans love it. But then I mean what's your opinion on what got out?
ED ORGERON: Well, you know, the things that I say outside to the media, those are things that I want to get out. And if I wanted that to get out I would have said that outside. But, you know, you get emotional, you talk to your football team it's your family, just like we all talk to our family, we talk around the dinner table we say some things that outside the family we don't say. And it was no means to hurt anybody or nothing like that, it was just a fiery moment, a very emotional moment with our team. That's all that was.

Q. Couple things, number one, this happened in 2011 and then of course we know there was a rematch. How much have you cautioned your players about understanding that if things go the way you hope they go and the way they hope they go this could happen again. And number two, after the game I asked Ja'Marr Chase about what the difference was and he said without a doubt he just said two words, coaching, coaching. Can you kind of elaborate on that please?
ED ORGERON: Well, yeah, this could happen again. Never can tell. The focus is going to be on Ole Miss. I think that we have a mature enough team not to look down the road. Because if we don't beat Ole Miss it won't happen. So I think that's our goal so I won't talk to them about that. But I will talk to them about leaving it alone after today. Let it go. Move forward.

I do believe Ja'Marr brings up a good point. I think that the hiring of Joe Brady, going to the spread, doing the things that we're doing on offense, the daily coaching that they get from Mickey Jones and Joe Brady, and recruiting great players. I mean, Ja'Marr's a great player, a great talent. I think that's the combination.

Q. You said a lot of times this year that someone at some point is going to be able to stop your offense but against Alabama you get back to that 40 plus mark for the first time in about three games. Just what was emphasized throughout those two weeks of preparation?
ED ORGERON: I just tell you it's confidence. We got em, coach. I passed by the office, How we doing, fellas? We got 'em, coach. Okay. Protect the quarterback. They had him. They did a good job. And obviously we had two touchdowns we missed, you guys saw that. And we had an over thrown ball that would have been a touchdown. We had a blitz that we didn't pick up that Jefferson was wide open. So as we watch the film we feel like we left some stuff on the table. And again, we played our best football for maybe a half, the second half we didn't play our best football we got to play for 60 minutes.

Q. Cade York answered the bell with two long kicks, what was the message to him after and what was his preparation like?
ED ORGERON: Yeah, good job. Cade was struggling with a hip flexor and he would go through some weeks without kicking and try and kick in the game. But he's healthy now, he's confident. Again, just tell him good job, nothing too high, nothing too low.

Q. Clyde Edwards-Helaire, I know what you said after the game, now that you've watched the film again, what can you say about Clyde?
ED ORGERON: Unbelievable. I don't know if I have seen a performance like that as football player in a big game like that. I really don't. I don't know, I can't recall, I can recall Reggie Bush doing things like that, I can recall Warren Sapp dominating some games, but that's right up there with it, man, that was as far as a dominant game. And he said something like, throw your heart on the line and your body will follow. Phenomenal saying. And that's him. I'm going to say it again, he's six-four, 270 when he runs that football.

Q. A number of your players just kind of went out for short stints against Alabama, but I guess now what is the overall health of the team after a big game like that?
ED ORGERON: We're about as healthy as we have been. Austin Deculus is going to be doubtful this week. Other than that we'll be fine.

Q. An Ole Miss question. Two new coordinators this year, both MacIntyre and Rich Rod, both obviously accomplished coaches, but how different are they with those two guys coordinating maybe than a year ago?
ED ORGERON: Totally different both on offense and defense. On offense it's more of a quarterback run. Rich Rod is a good coach and does a hurry up offense and not a lot of time at the line of scrimmage, very smart coach. Coach MacIntyre is going totally to a 3-4 defense, they were a 4-3 defense before, so it's a total different scheme on both sides of the ball.

Q. If Deculus is out did you like what you saw from Magee at tackle?
ED ORGERON: I think we're going to put Bedard at right tackle and we're going to experiment with Magee at left tackle and put Ed at guard.

Q. Is Dare Rosenthal healthy or available?
ED ORGERON: Dare Rosenthal will not be available this game.

Q. You spoke about Chaisson earlier, K'Lavon, in what ways is he more than just a rusher for you guys. Seemed like he was dropping more in this game and how does he fit in that?
ED ORGERON: Well that's the job description of outside linebacker in our defense. He's the bench linebacker. Now we want to rush him most of the time, but there's will some times where we blitz him from the other time and there's some certain coverages where he's go to the drop and he's athletic and can do it. And we're stunting him more that's where he's making those tackles for losses.

Q. Was that some of the stuff to save to confuse Tua a bit for this game?
ED ORGERON: I don't know, I don't know, I don't know how much that confused him. I don't know if it did or not to be honest with you. There's a lot of plays he didn't look confused.

Q. Were you proud of your team's composure in terms of penalties? There was kind of a cheap shot on one of your guys in the first half and your guys didn't retaliate to that.
ED ORGERON: I thought we handled the game, I thought as a coaching staff started with me, handled it a little bit better than Auburn, Auburn we will were a little bit over behind. We weren't going to offer hype this game at all. We went in there with confidence we said we're going to play with poise and confidence and we're going to play disciplined, play disciplined football. Our whole -- why I didn't have to tell them this but more than one time. We're not giving them anything. Nothing. I think they got the point.

Q. Ole Miss leads the SEC in rushing offense so just talk about your defensive game plan for this week.
ED ORGERON: We have to play well. Especially their front seven. They're not as strong as they have been in the past up there, there's three of their receivers on NFL rosters right now. I'm sure they're good receivers, but they're not as strong as they were in the past. But they can run the football. So we are going to have to play well in the box, we're going to have to tackle, this number 10 is a fast, fast running quarterbacks, it's like a wildcat. So we're going to have to play well in the box.

Q. That whole take us through the sequence with Moss's catch at the 1, were they telling you what they were looking at and did you expect the rule would go that way that he had been forced out to come back in?
ED ORGERON: About time. Hey, when we got that call I said, It's our day. But here's what happened. Obviously you guys saw it, right? He was out of bounds I don't know which foot it was but out of bounds and he came back he put his foot I know pounds and caught the ball it was clearly inbounds. But the defender had a slight nudge and nudged him out of bounds. So if you get pushed out of bounds you can come back and be the first one to much cat ball and that was the ruling. And I want to say, this is the best officiating game that I've been a part of. I thought those guys did a tremendous job officiating this game and I called Steve and I told him that.

Q. Follow-up on what he asked about the personal foul after the turnover. There was a similar play when y'all played Wisconsin after a turnover. If you remember that up at Lambeau Field. And an offensive linemen hit a guy late and I think there was there was a suspension as well. Is that something where you submit that to the league office? I guess a lot of people might be confused why the player was allowed to continue after that play.
ED ORGERON: Yeah, I think that's something we'll talk about. We haven't really, we haven't talked about it, but it's, since you brought it up, we will talk about it. And we got, when we got that catch, when that catch was not overturned, I wasn't complaining about anything else, man. (Laughing).

Q. I know that the NFL game's a different game but will you use the Saints loss yesterday to warn your team about the next two opponents?
ED ORGERON: You know, here's what I learned about this, games like this, okay. Not to speak that way. Not to -- speak in terms that we're going to play the LSU standard of performance and saying that without speaking the other way. So we're going to stay positive, I'm going to expect them to understand that we played our best for 30 minutes we didn't play for sixty minutes, we have to improve and I'm going to take that approach.

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