LSU Football: Ed Orgeron discusses how coronavirus outbreak has affected recruiting

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron has plenty of time on his hands these days, thanks to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron should be planning spring practices right now.

Instead, Orgeron, along with every other head coach in the country, is coaching his team from a safe distance.

The ongoing college football shutdown because of the novel coronavirus outbreak has pressed the pause button on sports in America. There’s no practices, no work outs and no in person recruiting.

Recruiting visits are extremely important during the spring. Programs are able to make a lot of progress with recruits in the spring, when the atmosphere is a bit more laid back (compared to fall). Coaches are typically able to spend more one-on-one time with recruits.

But just because recruiting visits aren’t happening, doesn’t mean Coach O and his staff aren’t still recruiting.

In fact, LSU is actually spending more time recruiting these days.

Orgeron spoke to 104.5 in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and he said he’s been able to talk to recruits more often because of the shutdown.

“It’s better because they’re all home. They’re bored. They FaceTime you back, they hit you back on Twitter,” said Orgeron on Tuesday.

Coach O added “I’m able to talk to recruits all day on the phone…..It’s been tremendous as far as being able to contact recruits”.

I’m not surprised that Orgeron has been able to find a silver lining in the midst of this terrible pandemic that’s rocked the entire world.

But like everyone else, I’m sure Coach O would rather be on the field coaching and recruiting in person.

The extra time spent recruiting is beneficial. And maybe the Tigers will land a recruit or two that they otherwise wouldn’t. But everyone is anxious to get sports going again. And everyone, even Coach O, would sacrifice extra recruiting time to get things back to normal.