LSU Football: Why Ed Orgeron has more time to be a ‘CEO-like’ head coach

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron is finding that he has more time to be the “CEO” of the Tigers’ football program.

That’s great news for LSU in 2021 and beyond.

One of the biggest reasons that head coaches fail is because they don’t actually know how to be head coaches.

When a coach goes from being an assistant to a head coach, the job changes in a dramatic way.

Suddenly, a coach is in charge of the whole team, instead of one position or one side of the ball.

That’s not always an easy adjustment for a coach to make. In fact, that’s the biggest reason that Orgeron didn’t find success as the head coach at Ole Miss in the mid-2000s.

Coach O, however, has proved to be a great CEO during his time at LSU. That was one reason why the Tigers were successful in 2019 (Orgeron allowed Joe Brady to coach the offense the way he wanted to coach it).

Ed Orgeron has plenty of time to be a CEO for LSU football

Orgeron has always been a defensive line guy. He’s known as one of the best defensive line coaches in football.

So it’s no surprise that Orgeron spends more time with the defensive line than any other position.

Well, at least he did.

Coach O revealed this week that he trusts new defensive line coach Andre Carter so much that he’s been spending more time than ever with other position groups. Orgeron is even managing to spend some time with the offense.

Here’s what Orgeron had to say about Carter and the defensive line on Saturday (via 247Sports):

"“Andre Carter is one great defensive line coach. I’ve turned over the defensive line to him. I told him that. I told the defensive line, you know, when I leave and I believe that coach Carter’s totally got it. He’s totally got it. So I’m even able to go over to offense during some periods. I spend some more time with the offense.”“The hands on stuff was to implement everything, make sure it’s right, and I still have an eye on it, I’m still looking at all the film with the defense, but I’m able to also be the head coach because of the coaching of Andre.”"

Anything that frees Orgeron up to spend more time as the head coach is a good thing. It’s also a great sign for the defensive line that Orgeron trusts Carter as much as he does.

The Tigers’ defensive line unit is fixing to be one of the nastiest in the country.