LSU Football: 2020 served as a “buffer” season for Tigers
By Zach Ragan
LSU football‘s 2020 season didn’t turn out quite as the Tigers were hoping it would.
Just a year after the most impressive season in college football history, LSU went 5-5 with a defense that gave up 35 points per game.
Not exactly the performance you’d expect from the defending national champs.
But there were plenty of good reasons for the Tigers’ lackluster 2020 season.
LSU lost a lot of talent to the NFL. The program also had to replace several key assistants (passing game coordinator Joe Brady and defensive coordinator Dave Aranda). All of those factors, combined with a season that was drastically altered due to COVID-19, created essentially a “throwaway” season for the Tigers.
LSU football needed the 2020 season to become better prepared for 2021
I hate to ever say a season “didn’t matter”, but that’s exactly how I feel about LSU’s 2020 season.
The Tigers needed the 2020 season as a buffer between 2019 and 2021.
Look, the 2019 team was special. And no team will likely ever live up to what the 2019 LSU team accomplished.
The 2020 season was basically like watching a team going through a “hangover”. The 2020 Tigers had no identity. They weren’t far enough removed from the 2019 season to become a new version of LSU.
But that will change in 2021, thanks a renewed energy flowing through the program.
“It’s a new energy, it’s a new attention to detail. It’s a new thought process. We’re playing a completely different defense,” said Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron during an interview on 104.5 in Baton Rouge on Tuesday.
“Our guys are up here, learning from the coaches,” added Orgeron. “You can just see it this year in our approach, there’s more details. We can’t take anything for granted.”
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The 2021 team is hungry. They’re hungry to create their own legacy.
2020 may have been a tough year for fans. But it was a year that was necessary.
LSU will be better because of the tough 2020 season. And it’s clear that program now has the energy it was sorely lacking last year.