Orgeron compares OU defense to LSU offense
ATLANTA – Ed Orgeron gives the Oklahoma defense the highest compliment possible. He compares the Sooner defensive transformation to his LSU offensive change.
The Louisiana State coach doesn't know how Alex Grinch has turned the Sooners from worst- inthe-Big 12 to something you can stand to live with. But Orgeron figures it's not so much different from what happened in Baton Rouge.
“Just like us on offense, it probably started in the meeting rooms,” Orgeron said Thursday at Peach Bowl Media Day. “It probably started with an attitude. It probably started about the way we walk through stuff, the way we do everything. Probably a complete different change.
“I think schematically, players, their great coaches, and then you've got to go out there on the practice field and do it. Obviously, they have.”
So has LSU's offense. Only more spectacularly. Quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy two weeks ago with a season quite out of character for Tiger football: 77.9% completions, 48 touchdown passes.
Since JaMarcus Russell's 2006 season that elevated him to the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, no LSU quarterback has thrown even half as many touchdown passes as Burrow has in 2019.
Only three times in that span has an LSU quarterback completed more than 60% of his passes, and only one of that trio (Zach Mettenberger,
2013) reached 20 TD passes.
Passing game coordinator Joe Brady arrived in the offseason, installed the spread offense and LSU became the sum of all college football fears.
A high- powered offense to go with that traditionally tenacious defense.
“I think it's a mentality” Brady said of the change at LSU. “I don't know – I think it is a culture. From a unit standpoint, I think that's important to establish a culture for what we're looking for. We put together a mentality in that room that we want to apply pressure. Whether it's the tempo, the aggressiveness, the mentality, the speed. It's important for our guys to understand and change the culture from that standpoint.”
Sounds a lot like what Grinch, OU's first- year
defensive coordinator, has done in Norman. The Sooners haven't spurted to the top of the national charts defensively, but they have changed the defensive culture.
“I think there are more similarities than differences,” OU coach Lincoln Riley said of the transformations. “You have to marry it all together. What do you think this group needs? If you've been brought in in a situation like that where maybe a group hasn't performed at the level that you would expect or hope, then you got to diagnose the problem first.
“And then, yeah, I think it's culture. I think the culture's got to fit in with scheme. I think the scheme's got to fit with the personnel that you have right there. A lot of times, obviously, when you
come in, it's not you're like you're bringing in all your own players or hand-picked guys. I think it takes all of it, but it starts with culture and mentality.”
Orgeron, who has a natural charm that seems void of hyperbole, talks matter of fact about the OU defensive improvement.
“They play ( against) the spread every day,” Orgeron said of OU's defense. “They play the spread in their conference. They know what they're doing. The biggest accomplishment to me, for Oklahoma's defense, is allowing only 24 points per game in that league where guys are scoring 50 all the time. What a tremendous accomplishment.”
It's not the accomplishment of the LSU offense. But it's a start. And it's a culture change.