Orgeron looks to address mistakes, explain defeat

Coach is trying to restore confidence after 30-point loss

BATON ROUGE, La. — Just three games into his first full season in his “dream job” as LSU coach, Ed Orgeron finds himself having to explain a historically lopsided loss to his fellow Louisiana natives.

He’s also trying to maintain the belief in the future of his regime, having been in the coaching business long enough to know how things can spin out of control when players’ confidence wanes.

Mississippi State “played as good as they can play and we played as bad as we can play,” Orgeron said on what he likes to call, “Tell-the-truth Monday.” It’s a day in which coaches and players are expected to speak candidly about what went right and wrong in the previous game.

“I learned a lesson. We didn’t prepare the players as well as we should,” Orgeron said. “This is going to be a turning point for us. It better be.”

For only the fifth time since the start of the 2000 season the Tigers lost by 30 or more In 2009, Nick Saban began to rebuild the program from the wreckage of a 3-8 1999 campaign.

The 37-7 beat-down by Mississippi State, which rose to No. 17, was LSU’s most lopsided defeat in a series that began in 1896.

With a couple days to digest video of the defeat, Orgeron discussed a litany of mistakes including penalties, dropped passes, missed assignments on both offense and defense and poor tackling.

Having dropped from No. 12 to 25th in the rankings, the Tigers (2-1) will now have two home non-conference games to get things turned around before their next SEC game at Florida on Oct. 7. Next up is Syracuse (2-1) on Saturday night, followed by Troy.

“You hope you hurt after losing more than you like winning,” said LSU quarterback Danny Etling, who completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes (13-of-29) for 137 yards. “I don’t like losing. You chew on the loss, don’t make the same mistakes and spit it out.”

Penalties seem to have become an epidemic for LSU, which has had 30 assessed in the first three games.

“We’ve had referees come to our practice,” Orgeron said. “We have run the guys who commit the penalties. Four penalties on defense, two targeting, really had an impact. Those penalties changed the game and kept the drive alive.”