re: O needs to revamp recruiting strategy to compete for NC consistently

I think what they’re trying to say is that the top OLman were all recruited by LSU, almost every single one of them were thoroughly recruited. Many of the OLman happen to be in the Alabama, Ohio, Clemson and Oklahoma areas or recruiting grounds that stretch back decades. There haven’t been big time OLman in Louisiana and the areas that we have recruited for decades happen to have other home based schools recruiting them. Someone they likely know, trust, related to or have a long history with recruiting them to another big name school and we aren’t getting them signed.

Everyone here and on the staff knows and agrees with these recruiting strategies. It’s basically what got Orgeron the job and will cost him the job if he can’t get this problem fixed. I absolutely agree though. We need to do some things that aren’t typically done. We either need to find a monitory advantage, a creative advantage, find a coach who comes with advantages or dedicate more time and personnel to find all available advantages possible.

Orgeron has definitely taken our recruiting of the QB and DL position to another level since Les Miles. I’d even say LB and WR as well. We did sign two of the best DL classes in the country the last 2 classes. We’re also signing much better QB talent under O. We signed one of the best TEs in the country last year and we are signing more polished and naturally talented WRs under his leadership. The OL is the problem. He’s trying to patch up the holes but that just isn’t and can’t be a long term solution. But what other choices does he have RIGHT NOW?

2020 was also not all about LSU’s current roster talent. We had enough talent to make another playoff run if Covid 19 hadn’t impacted LSU so much. Let’s face it, no other team in the country faced the hit we took from both the draft and opt outs. That’s not an excuse, it’s the simple truth of the matter. You can’t just not factor that into this seasons results. On top of all that we had our starting QB get hurt, loses at the top on offense and our defensive scheme was brand new in every way.

It wasn’t just the OL. That’s an extremely naive conclusion to come to. It was the totality of all factors which led to 5-5. We have signed some very talented OLman who aren’t living up to their ranking for whatever reason. But let’s not pretend that there aren’t very talented OL’s out there who don’t recruit 5*s and 4* players every year. They just don’t have the rest of the players to compete in the playoffs every year.

LSU happens to have most of what’s needed to compete every year. It is very possible to recruit and develop players on the OL also. We will just need to do a really thorough job of digging deeper into those players and recruit higher numbers in the bad years and add the 5* and 4* players on the good years. If we do this every year then we will end up with 5 quality OLman and a good second team behind them. We just have to do it all consistently and when we do end up with signees that we’ve missed on, at that point you can turn to JUCO and the transfer portal. I’m not sure just because of 2020 we should be freaking out about this like LSU is SOOOOOO far behind the schools like Clemson, Bama, Ohio State and Oklahoma. We just aren’t that far behind.