Florida is putting a lot on the game against LSU this weekend. It’s the best home opponent on the year, and they’re both honoring the 2008 national championship team and putting Tim Tebow in the Ring of Honor. A long list of major recruits will be in attendance. This is the big one.
So, here is my scouting report on the Tigers as they come into the Swamp.
LSU offense
The country has struggled to get a handle on the proper narrative for Ed Orgeron. The process that hired him set a new precedent for dysfunction, at least until Tennessee blew that away last year, and the drama with the offensive coordinator spot in his first year didn’t help. Was he a good pick or a lazy, inexpensive default? Is he underrated or overrated?
Here’s the way to think about where Coach O ended up, at least on offense with Steve Ensminger running the show: it’s a Les Miles offense if the Mad Hatter didn’t stagnate. It’s still a run-first, ball control offense that includes some vertical passes at times. It has some old-school sensibilities. It’s just been updated with some proven concepts from the spread era and doesn’t reliably run the toss dive on 3rd & short anymore.
The upshot is that the offense doesn’t feel innovative. Ensminger, after all, was a longtime Tommy Tuberville assistant at Auburn and then worked in the last seven years of the Miles era in Baton Rouge. Nothing about that suggests that he would be on the forefront of offensive football, and he’s not. LSU won’t do anything on Saturday that will make you stop and marvel at some new wrinkle.
However like I said, his playbook is a collection of proven concepts. They’re things that more or less everyone does, but everyone does them because they work. The offense may strike you as boring or uninspired, but it will move the ball anyway.
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