re: Real question: Who deserves credit for 2019

This fan base needs to get over the obsession with always assigning credit/blame to individual coaches and players. It’s a team game. Everybody has a job to do.

Joe Burrow’s job was to play quarterback, and he did that at the highest level we have ever seen at LSU. But do I think he goes 15-0, wins a Heisman and a nation title, and becomes the #1 overall draft pick if he’s playing LSU’s schedule with Southeastern’s roster/staff? No, probably not.

Does Ja’Marr Chase win the Biletnikoff if Jordan Jefferson is throwing him the football? No, probably not.

It’s all relative, and it all comes down to how well each individual does their job. Burrow’s job is to be the best QB he can be. He did that in 2019 and he has continued to do that in the NFL. Chase and Jefferson need to run clear routes, catch the ball, and make plays. They did that in 2019 and have continued to do that in the NFL.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room. It’s a lot easier to judge players than coaches, IMO. Each game is its own performance/sample for a player. You still want to see them do it with different pieces around them, but you can tell a lot about a player from a single season.

Head coaches are different, especially in college. So much of their success/failure comes down to putting the pieces together rather than individual game performances. That mostly happens in the off-season. Orgeron put the pieces together in 2019. There’s no question. But he clearly failed to do that in 2020, and it appears he has failed to do that in 2021 as well.

That doesn’t mean he deserves any less credit for 2019. But it does mean that it’s reasonable to question whether he can do it again.