Orgeron, Guice try to find their way at LSU
HOOVER, Ala. — A year ago, Les Miles and Leonard Fournette held court at SEC Media Days, blissfully unaware two men — and two friends — were months away from stunningly successful auditions to take their places at LSU.
LSU fired Miles four games into last season, following a 2-2 start. Fournette entered the season as a Heisman Trophy frontrunner but injuries and a longtime pining for the NFL sidelined that dream. Enter Ed Orgeron as interim coach, and Derrius Guice as interim starting running back.
“I just turned 20 a few weeks ago, and here I am in front of all these big cameras,” Guice said Monday, as the junior, two teammates and Orgeron held their own court at SEC Media Days. “I need to grow up whether I want to or not, and one thing Leonard always told
me was you have to grow up and be a man quick in the football business.”
Both of the new guys, still eager to impress in replacing LSU legends, already had an impact in Baton Rouge, La. Orgeron, who was Miles’ defensive line coach, turned in a 6-2 record in Miles’ place, including a 54-39 whipping of Texas A&M at Kyle Field in the regular-season finale.
Guice, like Fournette a touted recruit out of Louisiana, announced his presence in a big way in that same game, in rushing for an LSU single-game record of 285 yards against A&M. With Miles enjoying his forced retirement and Fournette gone to the Jacksonville Jaguars as the No. 4 overall selection in the NFL draft, Guice (5-11, 220) suddenly is the man on the LSU campus, and Orgeron has made no bones about it.
“Everything that we do is going to be based around our best player, Derrius Guice,” Orgeron said. “We have one of the best running backs and one of the best offensive players in the country. He runs the ball like Warren Sap pp lay ed on the defensive line for me at Miami — he runs with an attitude .”
‘Match his intensity’
Fournette declared for the NFL draft following his junior season, also his most disappointing of three years in Baton Rouge. Fournette rushed for 843 yards in 2016, less than half of what he had gained as a sophomore (1,953). Fournette gained 284 of those yards in one game, a 38-21 win against Mississippi, at the time an LSU singlegame record eclipsed only a month later by Guice’s showing at A&M.
“Leonard is never going to stop going hard, just like me,” Guice said of comparisons between the two dynamic backs. “I keep telling myself I need to match his intensity, even if he’s in Jacksonville while I’m at LSU.”
While Fournette never won a Hesiman or a national title, Orgeron realizes he’s got a big headset to fill in taking over for Miles, who won a national championship with LSU following the 2007 season. Miles had four seasons of at least 10 wins since 2010, but he also owned an Achilles’ heel that ultimately hastened his dismal: a failure to master powerhouse Alabama.
The Crimson Tide have won six consecutive games over LSU, the last with Orgeron as interim coach in November, a 10-0 Alabama triumph in Baton Rouge. The key to keeping the LSU job, according to Orgeron? Beat Alabama.
“(And) the way to beat Alabama is to recruit on their level,” said Orgeron, who coached Mississippi to a 10-25 record over three seasons from 2005-07.
Although his team didn’t score a point against the Crimson Tide last season, Orgeron said he was encouraged by the outcome.
“Last year was a tight game — it was 0-0 going into the third quarter,” he said. “… I don’t know if it’s that big of a gap … obviously there are a lot of people on our schedule that are very, very good football teams. So we can’t just point to Alabama, but they are the benchmark.”
BYU first up
First things first for the Tigers, who open with BYU on Sept. 2 at NRG Stadium in the Advocare Texas Kickoff and will try and improve on last year’s 8-4 mark that included a 29-9 victory over Louisville and Heisman winner Lamar Jackson in the Citrus Bowl.
Orgeron, 55, vowed his previous stint in the SEC at Mississippi helped prepare him for success at LSU.
“I had a great job in the SEC, but I wasn’t ready,” he said. “I needed to find out why I wasn’t successful. I came up with two things: I was going to treat the players exactly how I treat my sons, and I was going to treat every coach on the staff with respect and let him coach his position as he knew it.”