LSU Football: 3 fixes Tigers must make before 2020 season

1. Establish the future

The problem with winning a championship is that everyone puts a target on your back. There’s now target on LSU in recruiting, in coaching, and of course, on the field of play.

The last two “fixes” have centered around rebuilding the roster that will defend the championship on the field, and on the recruiting trail, the Tigers continue to bring in some of the nation’s most talented players.

The area for concern, though, is coaching. All season, it was coaching that was given credit for the Tigers’ title run. Mainly, it was Brady that many felt was responsible. Along with Aranda on the defensive side, this could easily be known as the coordinators’ championship.

But they’re both gone, and now the Tigers must move to the future. Ed Orgeron may have won the coach of the year award a season ago, but it is 2020 when Coach O’s skill will be truly measured.

2019 was a perfect storm. Brady came in, Burrow was in year two, the Tigers avoided Ohio State in the College Football Playoff, and the title game was basically a home tilt in New Orleans for LSU. It was a fun, magical year on the bayou.

But that set of circumstances won’t exist year in and year out. In 2020, we’ll find out whether or not the Orgeron era at LSU will be a one-hit wonder or a period of sustained success. Can Ed really coach, or was he carried on the backs of his coordinators and quarterback?

The early tea leaves don’t read well. The hire of Scott Linehan felt less like the Joe Brady move and more like Les Miles bringing in Cam Cameron. It worked last year, but going to the NFL for coaching is not the magic fix-all that LSU seems to think it is.

The Tigers finally winning a title was exciting, but it did not serve as an indication that this program has finally learned how to be elite on a yearly basis. That is a fix that LSU still has to make.