If there were two huge storylines from the UCLA-LSU game on Saturday, it was in the trenches on both sides of the ball and the running game. The Tigers got no push upfront and it made everything on the offensive side of the ball that much more difficult. Head coach Ed Orgeron addressed these issues in his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
Orgeron opened up the press conference discussing the players that will be out for this upcoming game.
Per Ed Orgeron the following players won’t be available Saturday:
Soni Fonua, Austin Deculus, Jontre Kirklin, Cam Wire, Ali Gaye
— Patrick Conn (@PatrickConnCFB) September 7, 2021
Being without the starting left and right tackles could be huge for the LSU Tigers. While they will be expected to win this game against McNeese that is troublesome for an offensive line that struggled in the opener.
While they are still intact in the middle of the line, group play is so important with continuity. Wire was rotating with Charles Turner, who also saw time at right tackle when Deculus went down with an injury. Ali Gaye will also be missed but the team has BJ Ojulari and Andre Anthony that can get to the quarterback.
On the topic of the team being predictable, Orgeron admitted they were outschemed by the UCLA staff. “There were a lot of things we could have eliminated as coaches and we didn’t do it.” He has been adamant since the loss on Saturday that he takes the blame for it.
On the run game, Orgeron discussed an emphasis at the beginning of the second half, “we felt like we had to come out and run the football. We found a couple of cracks in their defense. I felt our guys made a couple of adjustments at halftime that worked. Still, it was nowhere near the variety of runs, nowhere near the style of runs in which we need to run at LSU.”
The run game managed to accumulate just 32 yards rushing between Josh Williams and Tyrion Davis-Price. The loss of John Emery Jr before the game hurt them, but the offensive line wasn’t getting any push upfront for the backs to find creases. Orgeron knows that the run game is key for the LSU offense, and they need better than what they showed on Saturday.
No updates have been made available on the availability of Emery. The hope is that Armoni Goodwin will be available for the game Saturday along with Williams behind Davis-Price.