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https://lsu.rivals.com/news/everything-ed-orgeron-said-at-sec-media-day
ED ORGERON: Thank you, Commissioner. I really appreciate you mentioning my family. It means a lot. Great to be back to SEC Media Days representing Louisiana State University -- we're excited about the three young men that we brought here today. Great examples of LSU student-athletes, what a football player should be: Joe Burrow, Lloyd Cushenberry, and Grant Delpit. I think Grant Delpit is the best defensive player in the country coming back this year.
I'd like to thank Tommy Moffitt and the strength staff for a tremendous job this summer. We couldn't ask for a better strength coach and a better strength staff than we have with Tommy Moffitt.
And our football team, we've had a great summer, our coaches had a great summer. We're ready to go. It won't be long. Excited about our 2019 class.
We feel we have a very good class coming in. Two players already there, Derek Stingley and Apu Ika, starting on our football team already. Both of those guys are tremendous players.
Kardell Thomas, who was the number one guard in the country stayed committed to us and was the leader of our recruiting class will have a chance to compete the start at left guard.
We have two excellent running backings Tyrion Davis and John Emery. Those guys are elite backs. They are going to play this year and compete. Trey Palmer, one of the fastest guys in the country is going to add to our already deep wide receiver corps. Marcel Brooks will be an excellent player along with the rest of the class.
We're excited to see these guys. First time we could coach most of these guys in camp, and we'll give them a chance to compete and play.
I look forward to fall camp. I will block out the noise. Statement is going to be there again this year. Last year there was negativity. People didn't know what type of football team we were going to have or was talking about this, talking about that. Now this year they say we're going to have a really good football team, and I do believe we're going to have a really good football team, but we have to get back to work. We have to get back to the true grit, the fundamentals it takes at camp and block out the noise. I know our team's going do that with tremendous leadership.
On offense, we went to the spread. We hired Joe Brady. He came from the Saints, very talented coach. He spent some time at Penn State where he learned the RPOs, the run pass options, and he has been a game changer for our staff. He and Steve Ensminger work together wonderful. Steve Ensminger has done a great job for us as offensive coordinator.
I expect those two to run a very prolific offense led by Joe Burrow. This is Joe's type of offense. Joe is a dual-threat quarterback. We could not run Joe as much as we wanted to last year. We ran him at Texas A&M, ran him towards the end of the near. Myles Brennan was hurt. Now Myles Brennan is healthy. We're going to do a lot more running with Joe this year. I know he will fit in well with this offense.
Myles Brennan is up to 212 pounds. We'll play him in significant times this year. I want him to be ready. I want him to act like he's a starter, and we think he'll be an excellent quarterback. We'll also have Peter Parrish at quarterback.
Offensive line returns four starters. We feel like we're going to be very solid there. We have to improve in our pass protection. I know we will. Probably the strength of our offense is going to be our wide receiver corps led by Justin Jefferson, a fantastic route runner. He and Ja'Marr Chase are two outstanding football players, along with Terrace Marshall, who has come along into his own, was one of the best wide receivers coming out of high school.
We have Stephen Sullivan who is a 6'6" receiver. We can use him on the inside or at tight end. I talked about Tyrion and John at running back along with Clyde Edwards-Helaire along with Lanard Fournette and Chris Curry, so we'll be very solid there.
On defense, I talked about it all day today. I think this is the best group of defensive backs I've ever coached. That's 35 years of coaching. I'm talking about a collective group. Led by Grant Delpit who I believe is the best player in the country coming back on defense. Kristian Fulton is coming back from an injury. He's one of the top cornerbacksin the SEC, if not America. Derek Stingley is going to be a phenomenal player. JaCoby Stevens, who was a great athlete out of Tennessee is coming back. And then we have Kary Vincent who ran a 10.07 100 meters, one of the fastest guys in the country.
At linebacker, we have to replace Devin White. I don't know how you replace that guy. We have three great linebackers. Michael Divinity moved from outside linebacker, then Jacob Phillips and Patrick Queen are going to start for the fighting position -- starting position there. We have four returning starters on the defensive front. It all starts up front.
We have K'Lavon Chasisson back. We're excited about him. He's our best pass rusher. Rashard Lawrence returning for the senior year. Breiden Fehoko, Glen Logan, all those guys have started, so we have our rotation. We have our tackle up front, make more plays with the backfield.
On special teams, I'm excited about Greg McMahon. Greg has done a tremendous job as special teams coordinator. We have to replace Cole Tracy. He was a tremendous asset to our football team last year, but we have a young man named Damone Clark who has a very strong leg. He's very accurate. We look forward to seeing him.
Avery Atkins kicked 90 percent of his kicks off into the end zone. Zach Van Rosenberg, Josh Growden is coming back at punter, so we're very, very excited about that. We think we have a very, very strong special teams coming back. Blake Ferguson has been our deep snapper for your years. They're great young men. Any questions?
Q. Coach, at the spring meetings you said it was going to be a hell of a week when A&M plays LSU. What will be different do you think about y'all's approach this year as in previous years? ED ORGERON: I think the way last year's game ended added something to the rivalry. I think it's a game that I'm going to be looking forward to, our players are looking forward to. Obviously it's at the end of the year, I think it's going to mean a lot to where we go and where we're going to stand on the season. Obviously, we felt that we should have won that game three or four times, but that's done. There's some things that we could have done better in that game, but we're going to work very hard to fix that.
Q. I know you're not thrilled a lot of the times with Joe Burrow running the ball and trying to take on a tackler, going over people. How has his physicality affected your offense and the way you approach things? ED ORGERON: I do believe that Joe, if we let him, would run into a brick wall no matter what it took. He's that tough as a -- he has a linebacker mentality. We are going to use him on quarterback runs, quarterback draws, but we're going to be careful how many times we run him again. But it does add another element to our offense. We still want to be physical. We have physical backs. LSU is always going to be physical. We want to be 50/50 and run the football.
https://lsu.rivals.com/news/everything-ed-orgeron-said-at-sec-media-day
ED ORGERON: Thank you, Commissioner. I really appreciate you mentioning my family. It means a lot. Great to be back to SEC Media Days representing Louisiana State University -- we're excited about the three young men that we brought here today. Great examples of LSU student-athletes, what a football player should be: Joe Burrow, Lloyd Cushenberry, and Grant Delpit. I think Grant Delpit is the best defensive player in the country coming back this year.
I'd like to thank Tommy Moffitt and the strength staff for a tremendous job this summer. We couldn't ask for a better strength coach and a better strength staff than we have with Tommy Moffitt.
And our football team, we've had a great summer, our coaches had a great summer. We're ready to go. It won't be long. Excited about our 2019 class.
We feel we have a very good class coming in. Two players already there, Derek Stingley and Apu Ika, starting on our football team already. Both of those guys are tremendous players.
Kardell Thomas, who was the number one guard in the country stayed committed to us and was the leader of our recruiting class will have a chance to compete the start at left guard.
We have two excellent running backings Tyrion Davis and John Emery. Those guys are elite backs. They are going to play this year and compete. Trey Palmer, one of the fastest guys in the country is going to add to our already deep wide receiver corps. Marcel Brooks will be an excellent player along with the rest of the class.
We're excited to see these guys. First time we could coach most of these guys in camp, and we'll give them a chance to compete and play.
I look forward to fall camp. I will block out the noise. Statement is going to be there again this year. Last year there was negativity. People didn't know what type of football team we were going to have or was talking about this, talking about that. Now this year they say we're going to have a really good football team, and I do believe we're going to have a really good football team, but we have to get back to work. We have to get back to the true grit, the fundamentals it takes at camp and block out the noise. I know our team's going do that with tremendous leadership.
On offense, we went to the spread. We hired Joe Brady. He came from the Saints, very talented coach. He spent some time at Penn State where he learned the RPOs, the run pass options, and he has been a game changer for our staff. He and Steve Ensminger work together wonderful. Steve Ensminger has done a great job for us as offensive coordinator.
I expect those two to run a very prolific offense led by Joe Burrow. This is Joe's type of offense. Joe is a dual-threat quarterback. We could not run Joe as much as we wanted to last year. We ran him at Texas A&M, ran him towards the end of the near. Myles Brennan was hurt. Now Myles Brennan is healthy. We're going to do a lot more running with Joe this year. I know he will fit in well with this offense.
Myles Brennan is up to 212 pounds. We'll play him in significant times this year. I want him to be ready. I want him to act like he's a starter, and we think he'll be an excellent quarterback. We'll also have Peter Parrish at quarterback.
Offensive line returns four starters. We feel like we're going to be very solid there. We have to improve in our pass protection. I know we will. Probably the strength of our offense is going to be our wide receiver corps led by Justin Jefferson, a fantastic route runner. He and Ja'Marr Chase are two outstanding football players, along with Terrace Marshall, who has come along into his own, was one of the best wide receivers coming out of high school.
We have Stephen Sullivan who is a 6'6" receiver. We can use him on the inside or at tight end. I talked about Tyrion and John at running back along with Clyde Edwards-Helaire along with Lanard Fournette and Chris Curry, so we'll be very solid there.
On defense, I talked about it all day today. I think this is the best group of defensive backs I've ever coached. That's 35 years of coaching. I'm talking about a collective group. Led by Grant Delpit who I believe is the best player in the country coming back on defense. Kristian Fulton is coming back from an injury. He's one of the top cornerbacksin the SEC, if not America. Derek Stingley is going to be a phenomenal player. JaCoby Stevens, who was a great athlete out of Tennessee is coming back. And then we have Kary Vincent who ran a 10.07 100 meters, one of the fastest guys in the country.
At linebacker, we have to replace Devin White. I don't know how you replace that guy. We have three great linebackers. Michael Divinity moved from outside linebacker, then Jacob Phillips and Patrick Queen are going to start for the fighting position -- starting position there. We have four returning starters on the defensive front. It all starts up front.
We have K'Lavon Chasisson back. We're excited about him. He's our best pass rusher. Rashard Lawrence returning for the senior year. Breiden Fehoko, Glen Logan, all those guys have started, so we have our rotation. We have our tackle up front, make more plays with the backfield.
On special teams, I'm excited about Greg McMahon. Greg has done a tremendous job as special teams coordinator. We have to replace Cole Tracy. He was a tremendous asset to our football team last year, but we have a young man named Damone Clark who has a very strong leg. He's very accurate. We look forward to seeing him.
Avery Atkins kicked 90 percent of his kicks off into the end zone. Zach Van Rosenberg, Josh Growden is coming back at punter, so we're very, very excited about that. We think we have a very, very strong special teams coming back. Blake Ferguson has been our deep snapper for your years. They're great young men. Any questions?
Q. Coach, at the spring meetings you said it was going to be a hell of a week when A&M plays LSU. What will be different do you think about y'all's approach this year as in previous years? ED ORGERON: I think the way last year's game ended added something to the rivalry. I think it's a game that I'm going to be looking forward to, our players are looking forward to. Obviously it's at the end of the year, I think it's going to mean a lot to where we go and where we're going to stand on the season. Obviously, we felt that we should have won that game three or four times, but that's done. There's some things that we could have done better in that game, but we're going to work very hard to fix that.
Q. I know you're not thrilled a lot of the times with Joe Burrow running the ball and trying to take on a tackler, going over people. How has his physicality affected your offense and the way you approach things? ED ORGERON: I do believe that Joe, if we let him, would run into a brick wall no matter what it took. He's that tough as a -- he has a linebacker mentality. We are going to use him on quarterback runs, quarterback draws, but we're going to be careful how many times we run him again. But it does add another element to our offense. We still want to be physical. We have physical backs. LSU is always going to be physical. We want to be 50/50 and run the football.
