Tuesdays with Ed: Auburn

TJ Finley or Myles Brennan? That is the question the LSU football world wants to know and head football coach Ed Orgeron provided an update on Brennan’s health and how that may affect Finley’s status as the starting quarterback.

“Myles is going to practice today,” Orgeron said. “Jack (Marucci) is going to get him accelerated throughout the week. We’re gonna see. I don’t know yet if he’s gonna play. He may play, it all depends on how practice goes this week.”

While Orgeron could only speculate on Brennan’s health he was 100 percent clear on one matter: “I’m not putting him in unless he’s 100 percent ready.”

Orgeron said he’ll take it day by day with Brennan, Finley and Max Johnson. All three will get reps with the first team offense but Orgeron reiterated that Brennan is the starter, health provided.

“If Myles is healthy he’s our starting quarterback,” Orgeron said. “But I’m not putting him in unless he’s 100 percent.”

Orgeron only had good things to say about Finley, and even compared his confidence to Joe Burrow’s.

“He has some fire in him,” Orgeron said. “He’s a vocal leader, a lot of the things that Joe did to be honest; he showed some toughness. TJ came alive, it was his night. He had been confident all week, he’s been confident since he came here—not cocky, but confident and we love that about him.”

Quarterback is not the only new face for the LSU offense. Cam Wire has manned the starting left tackle spot in place of Dare Rosenthal. Orgeron confirmed that Rosenthal is suspended indefinitely and had positive things to say about Wire.

“I’m very impressed with Cam,” Orgeron said. “We recruited Cam and he was probably around 270, 280. We knew he’d gain weight. He’s got quick feet, he’s gotten better and better and better. And he’s playing pretty well right now, so yeah Cam is our starting left tackle.”

Orgeron noted that Wire “is a little banged up” and said Charles Turner is the team’s second string left tackle.

Orgeron said that while the defensive performance against South Carolina was the best of the season, improvements still need to be made.

“Overall our best performance on defense but still not enough,” Orgeron said. “We still have some work to do there, especially in the coverage aspect.”

Orgeron cautioned that Auburn, this week’s opponent, plays in a way that could give the Tiger defense fits. Auburn is in the top-four in both rushing yards, 822, and yards per carry, 4.67, and are sixth in the conference in rushing yards per game with 164. Gus Malzahn’s rushing attack is spearheaded by true freshman running back Tank Bigsby who is the third leading rusher in the conference with 432 yards.

“The thing that (Malzahn) does can give us problems,” Orgeron said. “It already has this year. I know we’re going to have to have our best game on defense this year to be successful.”