SOME UNFINISHED BUSINESS
UNDER NEW LEADER ORGERON, TIGERS LOOK TO SHED THEIR BAMA ALBATROSS
Ayear ago, Christian LaCouture figured he’d be in an NFL camp right now. Then came August of 2016, a month leaving LaCouture uttering a word rarely heard from a brawny, typically-buoyant defensive end: hopeless.
“I wanted to be out there with my teammates, but my doctor was telling me, ‘There’s nothing you can do,’” said LaCouture, a senior at LSU. “You feel hopeless.”
A torn ACL early in last year’s camp prompted LaCouture’s early onset of hopelessness, but a few days later his futility was exacerbated by floods in and around Baton Rouge, La., that wound up damaging nearly 150,000 homes, including that of LaCouture’s parents.
“Last year was tough,” LaCouture recalled this summer. “One of the worst years of my life, to be honest … there were things that hit me really fast.”
Instead of giving in to the seeming hopelessness, however, LaCouture hit back, and now he’s helping lead an LSU charge behind first-year coach Ed Orgeron. The Tigers open their season Sept. 2 against BYU at NRG Stadium in the Advocare Texas Kickoff.
“I didn’t want to leave with how it was,” said LaCouture, who missed all of last season with the knee injury but still projected as an NFL draft selection if he had bypassed on his senior season.
The Tigers are picked third in the SEC West behind Alabama and Auburn, and the likes of LaCouture are trying to lead LSU to its first national title since 2007.
“He’s a great young man,” said Orgeron, LaCouture’s defensive line coach before replacing Les Miles, fired following a 2-2 start last season. “He’s fought through adversity, and I expect him to have a great senior year.”
Can they solve Alabama?
LaCouture isn’t the only Tiger senior aiming for a solid bounce back from injury. Quarterback Danny Etling had back surgery following spring drills, and vows he’ll be “100 percent by the opener.”
Etling started the last 10 games of last year’s 8-4 season, replacing an inconsistent Brandon Harris. Etling, a transfer from Purdue, completed nearly 60 percent of his passes, and threw 11 touchdowns to five interceptions. He fought through back pain that was kept a secret from most everyone else.
Etling appears to be recovering quite nicely, and hopes to be a solution to a longtime issue for LSU: Losing to Alabama. Miles was fired in large part because of the Crimson Tide’s recent dominance over the Tigers. Alabama has won six consecutive games over LSU, the last with Orgeron as interim coach in November.
Orgeron was still LSU’s interim coach last Thanksgiving night when the Tigers whipped
Texas A&M 54-39 in College Station in the regular-season finale, one of his handful of impressive auditions in finally landing the job. LSU running back Derrius Guice, who’s back for his junior season, rushed for a single-game school-record 285 yards against the Aggies, in filling in for an injured Leonard Fournette (now in the NFL).
When Orgeron was named Miles’ permanent replacement, LaCouture said that made his decision much easier to return for a senior season.
“Having ‘Coach O’ as a defensive line coach and knowing what he brought to the table, I wanted to do that again,” LaCouture said. “I wanted one more year with him.”