LSU Football: Ed Orgeron hired younger coordinators by design

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron replaced five assistant coaches this offseason.

Replacing half of a coaching staff is usually never ideal.

But there was a silver lining with the recent change that came to the Tigers’ coaching staff.

It gave Coach O an opportunity to revamp the look of the staff — specifically from an age standpoint.

LSU football coaching staff gets younger by design?

The five coaches that left LSU this offseason had an average age of 58. The five new coaches that were hired have an average age of 38.

New Tigers offensive coordinator Jake Peetz is 37 and replaces Steve Ensminger, who is 62.

LSU hired Daronte Jones to replace the 53-year old Bo Pelini as defensive coordinator. Jones is 41.

Going with younger coordinators/assistants isn’t something that just happened. This was a conscious decision that Coach O made when looking at ways to improve his coaching staff.

“I set in all the meetings the last couple years and I felt we had to have a better personal relationship with our players,” said Orgeron this week (via 247Sports). “We had some great teams, but I think that now when you go to a spread offense and defending the spread, the younger guys know how to do it. The younger guys are going to obviously relate better to the players because they’re close to their age.”

I love this from Orgeron. Even in the midst of a record-breaking season in 2019, Orgeron understood that his coaching staff needed to evolve. He knew that the relationships had to improve.

Coach O didn’t look at the 2019 season as the only way to have success at LSU.

Orgeron is constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve. And his coaching hires this offseason are just another example of that.