LSU's Ed Orgeron Named Eddie Robinson Coach Of The Year

LSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

For Immediate Release - December 20, 2019

LSU’S ED ORGERON NAMED EDDIE ROBINSON COACH OF THE YEAR

BATON ROUGE – Ed Orgeron picked up another national award on Friday as the LSU head coach has been named the recipient of the 2019 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, the Football Writers Association of America along with the Sugar Bowl announced.

Selected by the Football Writers Association of America, Orgeron will be honored on the evening of Saturday, Jan. 11, during a reception in New Orleans, two days before the CFP National Championship at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Orgeron had previously been named as the Home Depot National Coach of the Year, the AP National Coach of the Year as well as the SEC Coach of the Year.

Orgeron has led LSU one of the most dominant seasons in college football history, beating five teams ranked in the Top 10 and outscoring opponents 621-275. The 13-0 and top-ranked Tigers face fourth-ranked Oklahoma in the CFP National Semifinals next Saturday in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

Under Orgeron in 2019, LSU features the most explosive offense in college football and has re-written nearly every offensive record in school history. LSU leads the nation in total offense with 554.3 yards per game and the Tigers are No. 2 nationally in passing yards per game (386.8) and No. 3 in points per game (47.8)

The Tigers have won 10 of their 13 games by double-digits, which includes a 37-10 victory over then-No. 4 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. The win over Georgia sent the Tigers to their first conference title since 2011.

Behind the play of Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Joe Burrow and Biletnikoff Award winner Ja’Marr Chase, LSU has scored 40 or more points 10 times in 2019 with six of those games seeing the Tigers go over the 50-point mark.

Burrow is the SEC record holder for passing yards (4,715) and passing TDs (48) in a season, while Chase is currently tied for the SEC record for touchdown receptions in a season with 18. LSU is the first team in SEC history to feature a 4,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers in the same season.

Orgeron will receive the iconic bust of another Louisiana native, the late Robinson, a College Football Hall of Fame coach at Grambling State University for 55 years and winner of 408 career games. Orgeron is from Larose in south Louisiana. Robinson was born in Jackson, in the northern part of the state, but later attended high school in Baton Rouge.

"Coach Orgeron is an incredibly deserving winner of this prestigious honor," 2019 FWAA President Matt Fortuna said. "From the ways he has reinvented his program on and off the field, to the bonds he has formed with his players, it is easy to see how he has led LSU to a No. 1 ranking this season. (LSU quarterback) Joe Burrow's Heisman speech alone made me want to run through a brick wall for Coach O."

Orgeron becomes the third LSU coach to collect the FWAA Coach of the Year Award. Paul Dietzel claimed it in 1958, a year in which the Tigers won the national title and beat Clemson in the Sugar Bowl at the old Tulane Stadium. The other LSU winning coach was Nick Saban, who led the Tigers to the national title in 2003, when LSU beat Oklahoma, 21-14 in the Bowl Championship Series, in the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome.

Orgeron is now one of four different Southeastern Conference coaches to win the FWAA honor since Robinson became the namesake in 1997, the year the legendary coach retired from coaching. The others were Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer in 1998; Saban in 2003 at LSU and again in '08 at Alabama; and Gus Malzahn at Auburn in 2013.

"Coach Ed Orgeron and the LSU Tigers' impressive 13-0 regular season record is a testament to Coach O's relentless leadership and guidance of one of college football's most storied programs," said Eddie Robinson III, grandson of the legendary coach. "Congratulations Coach Orgeron from the Robinson Family on winning the 2019 'Eddie Robinson Award!"