Tuesdays with Ed: Texas A&M

For the first time in three weeks, LSU head football coach Ed Orgeron met with reporters and actually talked about a game. Even more pleasantly, Orgeron was able to recap a 27-24 win over Arkansas.

“We had an outstanding week of preparation,” Orgeron said. “We had the will to win the whole game, it was a tough, hard fought battle. Give credit to Arkansas.”

Overall, Orgeron was pleased with the offensive performance. Freshman quarterback TJ Finley didn’t turn the ball over and threw what wound up being a game winning 13-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Jaray Jenkins. The offensive line also had a good game, not allowing a sack and paved the way for a 100-yard effort by Ty Davis-Price.

“Ty Davis-Price had one of his best games, he brought some physicality to the game and that was exactly what we wanted,” Orgeron said. We wanted to be able to control the line of scrimmage.”

Defensively Orgeron seemed pleased with the effort, aside from giving up so many explosive plays. But Orgeron felt that the plan to stop Arkansas’s hurry up offense worked well.

“I was pleased with the most of the way we played against Arkansas,” Orgeron said. “We had our cleats in the grass, we had a great plan for the hurry up offense. But I’m still not pleased with the deep balls, I’m still not pleased with the rub routes, not pleased with the explosive plays. And definitely not pleased with the way we’ve played those this season. We need to improve to be a championship defense and everybody knows that.”

After reflecting on Saturday’s win, Orgeron looked ahead to this weekend’s opponent the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies.

“Real good football team,” Orgeron said. “Kellen Mond’s a good player, they’ve got a strong offensive line, they have the No. 1 defense in the SEC. Very tough, very solid football team but we’re going to be ready for the challenge.”

This is, of course, the first time LSU will go back to College Station since the controversial 74-72 7OT game in 2018 and Coach O downplayed the emotions of that game two years ago.

“I thought about it this morning when I saw the film and I saw the stadium, I’ll be honest with you,” Orgeron said. “But it’s my job to prevent problems this week, have a great practice and not allow those things that happened to us last time.”