Change has come to LSU.
After 12 years at the helm, former LSU head coach Les Miles was relieved of his coaching duties on Sunday.
Former defensive line coach Ed Orgeron has assumed interim head coaching duties, the University announced Sunday.
LSU athletic director Joe Alleva, Orgeron and Miles held a meeting with the team to inform them of the change.
“Everyone’s gonna miss him,” said senior wide receiver Travin Dural, who has played under Miles the last four years.
As Orgeron replaces Miles, the Tigers’ goals remain the same, but the program needed change.
“However, it’s apparent in evaluating the program through the first month of the season that a change has to be made,” Alleva said.
After its 18-13 loss against Auburn, LSU’s second loss to an unranked team in September, the Tigers’ (2-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) search for hope may be meaningless.
But now LSU hopes its new head coach will mask its issues.
“We have an obligation to our student-athletes to put them in the best position to have success on the football field each week, and we have great confidence that coach Orgeron will do just that,” Alleva said.
Under Miles this season, most of what the Tigers dealt with was an inept offense, particularly in the fourth quarter when LSU has yet to score a point.
Through four games, LSU has outscored opponents 57-28 in the first half, as its offense stalled in the fourth quarter.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, LSU is the only power five team in the country to not score a point in the fourth quarter this season, including being shutout in the fourth quarter against Auburn.
Both of LSU’s losses this season ended on the Tigers’ final offensive possession. LSU finished with an interception in the red zone with less than a minute left against Wisconsin and clock management issues against Auburn on its final drive.
After the loss and before the firing, LSU’s players were asked how they find glimmers of motivation ahead of the tougher half of their SEC schedule, featuring a game at Florida on in two weeks before Ole Miss and Alabama come to Tiger Stadium on Oct. 22 and Nov. 4, respectively.
“Going forward, I hope we do great things,” Dural said. “Nobody likes losing.”
LSU’s staff-wide changes were implemented less than 24 hours after its loss to Auburn.
“This is not the way we wanted to go out,” Adams said.
A two-loss team alone is ordinarily not enough to make a postseason run or contend for a spot in an esteemed bowl game.
After the season-opening loss to Wisconsin, LSU had very little room for error.
With another loss against Auburn, thereby completing LSU’s first two-loss September since 2000, the Tigers marginal space for errors is now non-existent.
So what’s next?
Under its reconfigured coaching staff, LSU will face Missouri on Oct. 1, which hasn’t won an SEC game since Oct. 3, 2015.
To sophomore outside linebacker Arden Key, LSU shouldn’t be neglected quite yet.
“We just have to keep pushing. Keep fighting,” Key, the SEC’s leader with 6.5 sacks this season, said. “You never know who is going to lose, and when they’re going to lose.
“We’re still in the hunt. We lost one conference game. We lost one non-conference game. We still have a pretty good chance.”