Eating With Ed - Week 6, Florida

The LSU Tigers may be 5-0, but according to head coach Ed Orgeron, they’re not totally “satisfied.”

The Tigers take on the Florida Gators (4-1) this weekend in what could turn into one of the more difficult matchups they’ve played this year.

Orgeron addressed his main points of concern in regards to Florida defensive coordinator, Todd Grantham.

“His stunts and the way he plays his defensive line. They’re very aggressive. He won’t give you the same look many times. Their movements is very precise, he makes tackles for loss. He’s an aggressive attack type of coach.”

One area in which the Tigers showed improvement in last weekend’s 45-16 victory over Ole Miss was within the receiving corps.

“We have some big athletic receivers and at first of the year they wasn’t getting open so we changed some things that we’re doing, more crossing route, more mesh routes, more digs, more intermediate three level routes, play action pass,” Orgeron said.

Above all, he credits his offensive coordinator for solid decision-making.

“And I didn’t mention this, I think you have to give Steve Ensminger credit. I thought this was his best game so far this year of mixing it up, dialing it up. That touchdown by Jefferson, I have told him, I said, Steve, this is a statement drive, now we got to make a statement. He goes, how do you like that statement? I said, pretty good.”

But there’s still an aspect of the game that’s been bothering Orgeron all season long that he’s still not totally pleased with: pass rush.

“We had some good pressure on the quarterback this week, we had some different blitzes, we had some different personnel groupings, but we miscontained,” he said. “When you contain you got to come from the up field shoulder. Now we had some new guys doing it, but we let the quarterback roll out on us too many times... The other issue is we got to get better in our four-man rush. We are not where we need to be.”

Another thing that’s going to come into play when LSU travels to Gainesville is which players will be taking the field for them. Orgeron offered a humorous update on starting left tackle Saadiqh Charles.

“I’m going to say something funny, okay? This is a joke,” he said. “I just need to see him in a stance, that would be good enough for me. No, no, he could not have played Saturday night. I think that just him going through a practice and handling the contact in the right way he should be okay.”

Charles, who has missed the last two games, was present Monday in practice and is expected to make his return against Florida.

Orgeron couldn’t be as sure about the status of center Lloyd Cushenberry, calling “him very questionable for the game.”

The Tigers will be closer to making an official decision on Cushenberry later in the week.

Transcript

Game Notes