re: I trust Ensminger to replicate the schematics of this offense

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His 2018 offense says Hello.

You can’t objectively say he was the difference maker this year.

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The 2018 season was the start of the transition. Because Joe Burrow came in late, he was ill prepared at that point to be thrown into a new spread offense, all the offensive linemen were new starters, the running backs were all brand new starters, and all of the receivers were all first time starters.

As the season progressed and as Joe Burrow and the receivers all gained experience, Steve Ensminger started implementing more and more spread into the offense to the point that by the final three games, LSU was experimenting with empty sets. In fact, in the Fiesta Bowl, Joe passed for 394 yards.

Nonetheless, earlier in the season, Joe was still getting his bearings with the new offense and the new receivers were running the wrong routes as much as they ran the correct routes.

In any event, even with a brand new offense with all first-time starters, LSU still came within a hair of finishing undefeated.

Meanwhile, the plan was always to go full spread in 2019.