 Photo By: Jonathan Mailhes Da Boot Sports 9/13/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA: Coach Orgeron met with the media early Monday afternoon for his 'Tell the Truth Monday' press conference. He would go on to praise the defense for their performance, holding McNeese to 142 total yards of offense and sacking his son Cody Orgeron eight times. He also mention how proud he is of Cade York breaking the same record twice on Saturday night for the longest field goal kicked in Tiger Stadium. York hit a 55 yard field goal in the first half to set the record, then would hit a 56 yarder on the first play of the 4th quarter to break it again. As far as the offensive line play and the running game struggles go, Orgeron spoke the same ole, "We'll get that fixed this week." ... We heard "We'll get that fixed this week" for eight of the first ten weeks last season. That trend has continued into the first two weeks of 2021. Will they finally fix these problems? I hope so, because the fans are getting tired of hearing, "We'll get it fix this week." There were several empty seats in Tiger Stadium Saturday night, with many fans choosing to leave at halftime because they are tired of hearing, "We'll get that fixed this week," after ever game with little to no improvement. Below is a video of Monday's press conference... GEAUX TIGERS!!!
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 Photo By: LSU/SEC Da Boot Sports 9/13/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA: Ed Orgeron confirmed on Monday that LSU running back John Emery Jr. has been ruled academically ineligible for the 2021 season. The junior, five star rated back out of Destrehan was expected to be a huge part of the LSU rushing attack in 2021. Emery has rushed for 566 yards on 114 carries and 7 touchdowns in his LSU career.  Photo By: Michael Bacigalupi Da Boot Sports 9/12/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA: There is one thing that you can take from LSU's 34-7 victory over McNeese on Saturday night. Neither the Tigers or the Cowboys look like a good football team. This one was painful to sit through. Even though the LSU defense dominated the Cowboys throughout the contest, it was just nothing exciting or special to witness. It was expected. The most frustrating part of the ball game was the sputtering LSU offense which still featured no rushing attack. Most of the Tigers' 132 yards rushing came late in the 4th quarter after the McNeese defense had been worn down. Early and often LSU couldn't move the football on the ground when needed against a much weaker opponent. The pass protection still needs improvement as Max Johnson for the second week in a row would find himself regularly under pressure leading to another up and down performance by the quarterback. LSU would win the toss and defer to the second half. The Tiger defense would force McNeese to a quick three and out, setting up the offense, 1st and 10 at their own 38. The Tigers would go 62 yards in ten plays, with the drive ending with a 19 yard touchdown pass from Max Johnson to Trey Palmer on a 4th and two. Even though the Tigers scored on their first possession, it was a very sloppy. The highlight of the drive was a 21 yard gain by freshmen running back Armoni Goodwin as he would show his speed turning the corner for the nice gain. For the rest of the 1st quarter the LSU defense would do a solid job against an outmanned McNeese offense. It was the Tigers offense that was painful to watch as they were unable to run the football, and displayed a sputtering passing attack with shaky pass protection. With 7:42 to go in the first half, the LSU defense would force a fumble and recover it at the Cowboys 28 yard line. Max Johnson would find Kayshon Boutte in the back of the North end zone for a three yard touchdown pass. The scoring drive would take LSU three plays to go the 28 yards eating up only 44 seconds off the clock. The Bayou Bengals would manage to score one more time in the first half. After a short McNeese punt, the LSU offense would start the drive from their own 44 yard line. After driving to the Cowboys 30 and face a 3rd and seven, Joey McNeely would sack Max Johnson for a seven yard loss. Cade York would then hit a 55 yard field goal. The kick would be the longest field goal ever made in Tiger Stadium and would put the Tigers up 17-0 with 1:41 to go in the first half. The LSU offense would continue to sputter through most of the 3rd quarter, before finally beginning a drive at the McNeese 49 with 4:38 to go in the period. Max Johnson would drive the Tigers 49 yards in seven plays, hitting Boutte in the end zone for a six yard touchdown. York's PAT would extend the LSU lead to 24-0. The Tigers would increase their lead to 27-0 on the first play of the 4th quarter as Cade York would break the record that he set earlier in the contest for the longest field goal kicked in Tiger Stadium as he would connect on a 56 yard attempt. Corey Kiner would score his first touchdown as a LSU Tiger with 7:37 left in the contest. On a 1st and ten at the McNeese 23, Kiner would take the handoff from Garrett Nussmeier and find himself in the end zone after a couple of nice shifty moves making tacklers miss. 34-0 Tigers. McNeese would score their only points with 4:30 left in the game, when Cody Orgeron would hit Carlo Williams who would outrun the LSU defense to the end zone for a 44 yard touchdown. The LSU defense held McNeese to 142 total yards of offense, which 44 of that came on the Cowboys scoring play. Cody Orgeron was harassed all night long. The Tigers sacked him eight times and kept him under constant pressure. Maason Smith had a huge game with 6 tackles and 3 sacks. Andre Anthony finished with 5 tackles and two and a half sacks. Damone Clark had a solid game with six tackles. Major Burns, Nav Strong, Jaquelin Roy, and B.J. Ojulari all stood out as well. Max Johnson would finish 18-27, for 161 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. Garrett Nussmeier, who entered the game late in the 3rd quarter finished 3-10 for 19 yards. Kashon Boutte had another nice game, with 5 grabs for 31 yards and 2 touchdowns. Jack Bech had 4 catches for 57 yards. Kole Taylor had 22 yards on 4 receptions, and Trey Palmer had 3 catches for 30 yards and 1 touchdown. Corey Kiner would lead the team in rushing with 56 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown. Ty Davis-Price added 37 yards on 8 carries, while Armoni Goodwin would have 2 rushes for 23 yards... The offensive line was with out starters Chase Hines and Austin Deculus and continued to struggle run blocking with shaky pass protection. The question now is, if Ed Orgeron and this coaching staff can't fix the offensive line problem and get the defense to play at a high level against a worthy opponent soon, will Scott Woodward fix the problem at the end of the season, or perhaps sooner? Next up the Tigers will host Central Michigan on Saturday at 6:30pm. The game will be televised on the SEC Network. Photos Below By: Michael Bacigalupi Photos Below By: Jonathan Mailhes  Photo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 9/10/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA: With LSU about to open their home opener of the season against McNeese, Coach Orgeron held his weekly Thursday press conference with the media.. Below is a video of the press conference for your viewing.... GEAUX TIGERS!!  Photo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 9/8/2021 Article courtesy of Saturday Down South By: Jake Rill It’s clear that LSU fans aren’t happy with the way the Tigers opened the 2021 season. On Saturday night, LSU suffered a 38-27 loss to UCLA at the Rose Bowl. The Tigers trailed by only 4 points at halftime, but the Bruins extended their advantage to 18 points by late in the fourth quarter. After going 15-0 and winning the national championship in 2019, LSU took a step back by going 5-5 in 2020. And now, it’s 0-1 to begin 2021. There’s one LSU fan from Atlanta who is particularly upset about the current state of the team, and his name is Andre. He called in during “The Paul Finebaum Show” on SEC Network on Tuesday, and he voiced his frustrations with the Tigers and head coach Ed Orgeron. “If we can’t beat a mid-level Pac-12 team … listen, I like Coach Orgeron. He’s a nice guy. But by Game 6 or 7, he’ll be gone,” Andre said. “It’s just, this is the SEC, this is big-money ball, this is big-money coaching. I give him Game 6 or 7. Listen, we ain’t got no warriors on the offensive line. We don’t have no Marcus Spears or [Booger] McFarlands or Michael Brockers on the defensive line. We don’t have warriors. “Hey look, I hate to say it, coach. But I give him Game 6 or 7. This ain’t the Big 10, this ain’t the Pac-10, this ain’t the ACC. This is the SEC. This ain’t the Big 12. I give him Game 6 or Game 7, and they’re going to give him his pink slip.” At that point, Finebaum confirmed that Andre is an LSU fan — which he is. But he’s a disgruntled one, for sure. “Man, I saw that. The struggles,” he continued. “The offensive line struggled. The running game struggled. The passing game struggled. This looked like Les Miles 2.0. And I like Coach Orgeron. I do. But this is big money. And like ain’t got nothing to do with it when you’re making this kind of money.” LSU will look to make its fans happier this Saturday, when it faces McNeese at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+.  Photo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 9/7/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA: It's been reported on Tuesday that former LSU running back Tre' Bradford has left Oklahoma, has enrolled at LSU and rejoined the football team. Bradford was a member of the 2020 recruiting class as a four star out of Lancaster, Texas. He decided to enter the transfer portal during the off-season. Bradford will be a nice addition to the backfield which was down to only three backs against UCLA, due to an injury to Armoni Goodwin and John Emery Jr. having to sit out due to academics. Ty Davis-Price, Corey Kiner and Josh Williams round out the unit.  Photo By: LSUsports.net Da Boot Sports 9/7/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA: For the second year in a row, the LSU football team has opened up the season with an embarrassing defeat. The 38-27 loss to UCLA has most of the purple and gold fan base concerned and upset. The Tigers have the next two weeks against McNeese and Central Michigan at home to work out the kinks and make some improvement before they travel to Starkville, Mississippi for their first SEC contest of the season against the Bulldogs. Coach Orgeron spoke to the media early Tuesday afternoon saying that the UCLA game film was reviewed and most mistakes that were made can be corrected by coaching, adding that he takes full responsibility for the team not being prepared enough to come away with a victory on Saturday. Orgeron also thanked all the Tiger fans who traveled to Los Angeles to support them on Saturday evening, saying that he and the players really appreciated it and they are looking forward to playing McNeese this weekend at home in Tiger Stadium. Looking forward to the Tiger-Walk being full. Tiger Stadium being full. Getting back on the winning track. The team had a few injuries against UCLA. Players who will be out for McNeese this week will be Soni Fonua, Jontre Kirkland, Austin Deculus, Ali Gaye, and Cam Wire.... PLEASE Coach O! All of us here at Da Boot Sports want a running game and for your offensive line to give Max Johnson time to throw. We want your defense to stuff the run, tackling hard every down. Put pressure on the quarterback and cover receivers on every play... Below is the video of Coach O's press conference on Tuesday.... GEAUX TIGERS!!!  Photo By: Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG Da Boot Sports 9/5/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil LOS ANGELES, CA: The UCLA Bruins (2-0) made a statement dominating the #16 LSU Tigers (0-1) in the second half of Saturday night's contest. The Bruins simply made the adjustments necessary to take control of the ball game earning a 38-27 victory. After a scoreless 1st quarter LSU would draw first blood as they would finish off the first drive of the second quarter with Max Johnson hitting Kayshon Boutte in the end zone for a four yard touchdown. 7-0 Tigers. The LSU momentum would only last for a few seconds as the Bruins would respond quickly. On the first play of the next possession the LSU defense would bite hard on a play action by UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who would bootleg away from the LSU pursuit and hit a wide open Greg Dulcich who would out physical a couple of LSU defenders while rumbling into the end zone for a 71 yard touchdown to tie things up 7-7. After LSU would go three and out on their next possession, UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet would begin to put on a show. He would start the drive with a 20 yard burst, then he would then take in a pass and outrun the LSU defense for a 35 yard gain down to the Tigers 16 yard line. Charbonnet would then finish off the drive with a 12 yard touchdown run. 14-7 Bruins with 9:49 to go in the first half. The LSU defense would come up with the first turnover of the contest as Eli Ricks would intercept a pass at the UCLA 33 yard line. The Tigers would drive to the Bruins seven yard line before having to settle for a 26 yard Cade York field goal to cut the lead to 14-10 at the 3:53 mark. The score would remain 14-10 at the halftime break. LSU received the second half kickoff and moved the ball to mid-field. On a 1st and ten at the LSU 49 yard line, Max Johnson, while under heavy pressure, would throw an interception which was returned 34 yards down to the LSU 17 yard line. Two plays later Thompson-Robinson would find Chase Cota for a 14 yard touchdown to give the Bruins a 21-10 lead. Max Johnson would respond, show poise on the next possession as he would quickly take the Tigers down the field to answer the UCLA score. After completing a 20 yard pass to Trey Palmer at the Bruins 44, Johnson would then hit Kayshon Boutte in stride in the middle of the field for a 44 yard touchdown, to pull within 21-17. Over the next two possessions, both teams would drive with each settling for a field goal as we would head to the 4th quarter with UCLA up 24-20. It was here in the 4th quarter when things for the Tigers started to get ugly. UCLA's offensive line began to wear down the LSU defense, opening up huge holes for Charbonnet to run through for massive gains. The Bruins would easily go 73 yards in eight plays, punching it in the end zone from one yard out to extend their lead to 31-20 with 12:28 to go in the contest. After another LSU three and out, the Bruins would again move the ball at will against the exhausted Tiger defense, eating 4:34 off the clock while again driving 73 yards in eight plays. Thompson-Robinson would connect with Kyle Phillips down the near sidelines for a 44 yard touchdown as several Tiger defenders would fail to bring him down before crossing the goal line. 38-20 Bruins with 6:31 to go. The LSU offense would continue to fight as they would drive 73 yards in seven plays, scoring on a 45 yard touchdown pass from Johnson to Boutte. 38-27 with only 4:08 left on the game clock. The Bruins would continue to run right at the tired LSU defense, eating up clock and yardage until taking a knee to finish off the final seconds at the LSU 26 yard line... LSU's performance was a disappointing one as they looked a lot like last season's team through most of the contest. The Tigers were unable to run the football at all, finishing the game with 48 yards on 25 carries for a dismal 1.9 yards a carry. Ty Davis-Price lead the team with 30 yards on 13 carries. while Max Johnson had 16 yards on 11 runs. LSU was one dimensional all game long. Max Johnson performed with a lot of heart as he was under tremendous pressure most of the night. He would finish the game going 26-46 for 330 yards passing, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. The wide receivers played well, but had a few key drops that could have helped kept the game closer at times. Kayshon Boutte lead all receivers with 148 yards on nine grabs, scoring 3 touchdowns. Trey Palmer finished with 47 yards on seven catches, while Jaray Jenkins caught 3 balls for 46 yards and Koy Moore had 3 catches for 32 yards. The offensive line needs to get better and get better quickly. It is just puzzling to me that this unit can't run block, while their pass protection is average at best. Very discouraging. Very frightening. For a quarter and a half the defense looked like the type of defense that we expect to see at LSU. But what I saw as the game went on was a defensive coordinator who couldn't make counter adjustments to an opponent's offense that did make adjustments as it got late into the first half. It was also shocking to see the defense get out-physicaled by the UCLA offense during the final 30 minutes of the contest. The Bruins did what they wanted offensively in the second half and made it look easy. Demone Clark finished the game with 13 tackles, while Jordan Toles and Major Burns both had six tackles each. The Tigers had four sacks in the game. Gaye, Ojulari, Anthony, and Strong each had one... UCLA finished with 210 yards rushing and 470 total yards of offense. No problems with special teams in the contest. Avery Atkins punted the ball well, while Cade York was 2-2 on field goal attempts and 3-3 on his PATs. It will be a long week for the Tigers as they look to regroup and refocus after returning home from their west coast trip. They say a team improves the most from their first game to their second game. Improving is what this team must do. Next up the Tigers will host McNeese in Tiger Stadium for their home opener. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00pm and will be televised on ESPN+  Photo By: athlonsports.com Da Boot Sports 9/3/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil BATON ROUGE, LA: Are you ready for some LSU Football!??? The Tigers are ready to play and rebound from last year's disappointing 5-5 finish. LSU will open up the 2021 football season on the road against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Kickoff is set for 7:30pm CST. and will be carried on FOX. Last weekend UCLA (1-0), dismantled a pretty bad Hawaii team 44-10, while rushing for 244 yards. Coach Orgeron has been very happy with his team's progress throughout the fall camp leading up to this weekend. But along came Hurricane Ida. The category 4 storm forced the team and staff to relocate to Houston, Texas to finish off preparations for the week one contest safely. "It's like a bowl," said Orgeron. "Our team is focused. Players are coming early to meetings. We're kind of in our own little protected cocoon here, so it's been great. It's game week. There's a little pep in their step." A major subject during fall camp leading up to this weekend has been the amount of injuries that has taken place. Most of them have been called minor camp injuries, but never the less, it's been enough to cause concern among the media and the fan base. Of course the biggest injury of the entire camp has been quarterback Myles Brennan breaking his left arm in a freak accident while on a fishing trip. He is hopeful to return by mid-season. Defensive tackle Glen Logan ended up reinjuring a stress fracture in his foot and is hoping to also return at the mid-season point. Freshman running back Armoni Goodwin will miss Saturday's contest, as well as freshmen wide receiver Malik Nabors who will probably be out until the Auburn game. The offensive line has been bitten by the injury bug all camp long, but everyone will be available to play against the Briuns. "We haven't had our starting offensive line the whole camp, I think that's the area where we have to gel fast because UCLA looked pretty good on the defensive front," Orgeron said. Derek Stingley and Eli Ricks are ready to go after missing several days of practice with camp injuries as well as veteran running backs John Emery Jr. and Ty Davis-Price. We're all looking forward to seeing how this new, young LSU coaching staff fairs this weekend. Neither offensive coordinator Jake Peetz or defensive coordinator Daronte Jones have ever been coordinators before. The talent is there. Can this group of young men return to live by the "One Heartbeat, One Team" philosophy that the 2019 team was fueled by? We are only one day away from finding out. It's going to be fun. All of us here at Da Boot Sports will continue to send prayers out to everyone effected by Hurricane Ida. God Bless  Photo By: LSU/SEC Da Boot Sports 9/2/2021 By: Terrill J. Weil Wednesday morning was the first Southeastern Conference football coaches weekly media teleconference of the 2021 season. Below is what Coach O had to say about this weekend's upcoming contest with UCLA... GEAUX TIGERS!!! Opening statement Our thoughts and our prayers are going out to our fans in the great state of Louisiana. It hit our (Orgeron’s) hometown in Larose pretty hard. South Louisiana was hit pretty hard. But everybody is safe and that’s what’s important. We came here to Houston. Houston has been very, very nice to us. The Houston Texans have given us Reliant Stadium. We’ve stayed at the Hyatt Regency, everybody there is great. Our families are safe, so thank God for all that. We’re prepared for a good UCLA football team. Chip Kelly has his team ready to play against Hawaii. Very impressive. On if travel to Houston has affected practice plans The players and the coaches have handled it great. It was a long trip coming over here, but we got to rest on Sunday. Our team has been focused, everybody is early to meetings. We’re kinda in our well-protected cocoon here. On UCLA’s defense in its season opening win over Hawaii I thought they were better than last year. They were attacking and making plays all over the field. Their cornerbacks tackled well in open space. So, it’s going to be a challenge, but we have speed, too. On what he said to his team about playing in Rose Bowl Stadium It’s an honor to play there. I’m so excited to bring our team there. I usually don’t take them to the stadium the day before (a game), but I will just like three years ago when we played Miami and we went to the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. I think it’s something they want to see. I let them take pictures, let them be part of it, let them get that out the way. We’ll have a little practice on the field, let them feel the turf. But then the next day, man, it’s the same football field. We’re going to focus on playing well, focus on the LSU Tigers and not let any surroundings be intimidating or distract us from what we want to get done. On starting QB Max Johnson’s growth from last season to this season It’s understanding our offense. (New offensive coordinator) Jake (Peetz) has done a great job of teaching Max how to stay in the pocket, learning his reads. I just hope he finds Kayshon Boutte. He’ll be fine if he does that. On getting players back from the injury list It’s game week. There’s a little pep in their step. We had our best practice of the whole camp yesterday (Tuesday) at Reliant Stadium. We played music. Guys are fired up. Derek Stingley was out there, Eli Ricks was out there, the O-line was out there, Ty Davis-Price was out there, John Emery was out there. Most of our team, not all, are back. Two or three guys are probably not going to be ready to play. On whether all the preseason offensive injuries have created continuity problems Ty Davis-Price looks like he’s fine, the offensive line is going to take time to jell a little bit because we haven’t had our starting offensive line the whole camp. That’s the area where it’s going to have to jell but it’s going to have to jell fast because UCLA looked pretty good on the defensive front. On if all of LSU’s players have been able to contact their families after Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana Tam Davis and Eddie “Boo” Kennison do a great job of taking care of our players. They’ve been on the phone with mommas and daddies and families. Our administration has been trying to help any families needing help. Our players are feeling everybody is okay. Some of the houses are really damaged, some (families) need to be displaced into hotels. For the most part, everybody is fine. On when the decision was made to move the team to Houston Friday morning when we knew the hurricane was coming and it came up fast. We met with the administration. Everybody was on the same page. Thoughts were if we stay in Baton Rouge, are our players going to be in harm’s way? I didn’t want that. If we did stay, we’d be taking a chance if we could practice or couldn’t practice. We definitely needed the opportunity to get our players safe and the opportunity to practice. We thought about Dallas first. Living in Louisiana, they can say the hurricane is coming and it can turn in an instant. . .but we decided to come east. On the playing status of freshman wide receiver Malik Nabers Malik will not be able to play. I don’t know if he will be able to play until a couple of games into the season. He’s definitely going to be out for UCLA. |