LSU Football: Ed Orgeron needs to quit publicly blaming coordinators

LSU football head coach Ed Orgeron took responsibility for the Tigers’ disappointing season-opening loss to the UCLA Bruins on Saturday night.

“One game does not define a season, but we do understand that was a letdown for our fans,” said Orgeron (via 247Sports). “I take responsibility for it.”

“When you don’t win like that, it goes out to the one person, that’s me, nobody else,” added Orgeron.

I applaud Orgeron for taking responsibility for the loss — that’s exactly what a head coach should do.

But while Coach O said the loss was on him, he still found a way to throw some shade at his own coordinators.

Ed Orgeron shouldn’t publicly blame LSU football’s coordinators

Orgeron didn’t come out and directly slam offensive coordinator Jake Peetz or defensive coordinator Daronte Jones after the game. Instead, he found a way to subtly throw some blame their way.

Coach O made it a point to say that the play calling needs to be more diverse.

From 247Sports:

"“First of all, we’ve got to be more diverse. We have to have multiple runs with multiple sets, which we didn’t do tonight. We’ve got to get that fixed. It’s going to get fixed immediately.”"

Orgeron also said the players on both sides of the ball need to be in better positions while answering a question about the performance of LSU’s new coordinators.

"“I think that we were off a little bit. We could have put our players in better positions in a lot of places.”"

Coach O again questioned the play-calling after he was asked a question about LSU’s physicality against UCLA.

"“We’ve got to look at it, see what’s happened. Maybe it’s the plays that we’re calling. Maybe we’re overloaded at one spot, maybe we’re not. Look at the techniques we’re doing, look at the personnel. Again, for us in the run game, we need more of a variety of runs. Use our athletes, get them in space a little more.”"

Everything that Orgeron is saying is correct. But I’m not sure he should be throwing back-handed blame at Peetz and Jones. Those are comments that should be reserved for behind closed doors.

Orgeron made similar comments about Bo Pelini last season.

After last season, an anonymous coach suggested that LSU had some “ego problems” between coaches in 2020.

Hopefully, the 2021 season isn’t heading in the same direction as the 2020 season.

However, I could see some issues developing between the coaches if they continue to receive public blame.

There’s a better approach for Orgeron to take. I understand his frustration, but he’s got to keep those comments out of his press conferences if the vibe on the coaching staff is going to be better than it was last season.