ORLANDO — Saturday could be the beginning for No. 20 LSU, through its new coach Ed Orgeron, to return to its championship-winning ways, he said.
For that to happen, the Tigers (7-4, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) will have to defeat an option-heavy No. 13 Louisville team at 10 a.m in Orlando’s Camping World Stadium captained by its Heisman trophy-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson.
“First of all, we would have beaten a very good football team,” the coach said prior to his first game as LSU’s official, and 33rd, head coach. “We think that Louisville is one of the better football teams that we’ve played this year … But this puts us into recruiting. This puts us in the offseason with a positive mindset, and it sets the standard for LSU football, which is to win championships.”
A shiny silver- and black-pedestaled Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl trophy, with a welded steel bowl of shiny, sunny citruses sitting atop it, waits to be claimed.
But there are an abundant amount of storylines at play for that to happen for either team.
The Tigers and Cardinals (9-3, 7-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) have respective oddities leading to Saturday’s morning kickoff prior to a shot at claiming the literal fruits of their labor. LSU-Louisville will be televised on ABC prior to the College Football Playoff doubleheader tomorrow evening.
Of the things making the Tigers-Cardinals matchup worthy of leading off the round of championship-related playoff games on the network: A Heisman-winning quarterback, Jackson, versus “the best defensive coordinator in college football,” Orgeron deems Tigers defensive coordinator guru Dave Aranda.
“Here’s the deal with Lamar Jackson, once he gets in the space, he can go 60 in a heartbeat,” Orgeron said Friday in a pre-bowl news conference. “We’re going to have to gang tackle him.”
Added Orgeron: “We’re going to have to do a great job in coverage. Lamar Jackson can throw the ball very well. He’s just not a runner. He can beat you with his feet and his arm.”
Louisville, with its option-powered offense, lends Jackson the freedom to pick apart opposing defenses where his athleticism can — either with his feet or through the air with his arm.
But, that’s where Aranda’s defenses, derived on deception, are at their best, Orgeron said.
“Their offense, if you do one thing, they’re going to do another,” Orgeron said. “We are going to need to be prepared for it, but I do believe that’s one of Dave Aranda’s strengths.”
Adversely, Louisville’s 12th-ranked defense dressed in cardinal red will ram against an LSU offense that is 25 days removed from when once-Heisman frontrunner Leonard Fournette, a draft-eligible junior, announced he would forgo LSU’s bowl game. Fournette later signed with Roc Nation Sports, waiving his amateurism to declare for the NFL Draft.
For a fifth time this season, LSU’s offense will be steered by fleet-footed sophomore running back Derrius Guice, who became the second tailback in conference history since Kentucky’s Moe Williams (1995) to rush for 250 yards, or more, twice in the same season.
He, though, enjoys the limelight and his speed and agility will heavily factor into a Tiger win or loss, Orgeron said.
“He enjoys being the man — the No. 1 man and deservedly so,” the 55-year-old coach said. “He’s a great back. He’s a great young man. We’re going to have to run the football. We’re going to have to keep the ball away from their offense and do a good job of clock management and he’s going to be a big part of it.”
Saturday’s morning kick will be Orgeron’s first — and LSU’s 17th-straight bowl appearance — as the Tigers’ official head coach. Orgeron steered the school to a 5-2 run as interim head coach, winning the five games by a combined 130 points.
He’s not nervous, but the added pressure is present.
He says he won’t let it be bothersome.
“Those thoughts have come across my mind but I can’t let it be a factor,” the Larose, Louisiana, native said. “I promised myself the No. 1 [priority] when I got the interim job, I was going to be the head coach at LSU. And there’s nothing there’s changed in my demeanor or what I’ve done, but I understand the magnitude and this isn’t my first game and I’m going to be judged whether I win or lose. I understand that. But those pressures cannot affect the way I coach or the way our team plays.”
Neither team’s defense will be at full speed, either, in the 71st annual Citrus Bowl.
Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, simply, is thrilled the Cardinals are in Orlando, and not mourning at a funeral for starting linebacker/pass-rusher James Hearns and reserve linebacker Henry Famurewa, who were were shot in an off-campus party on Dec. 11. Both players will miss the Citrus Bowl with injuries and did travel with Louisville to Orlando.
“We’re very fortunate that we’re not at a funeral right now,” Petrino said. “[And] that both of them are healthy and have an opportunity to continue their career and get their degrees and do everything that they came to the University of Louisville to do.”
LSU, and its 14th-ranked defense, will be without senior middle linebacker Kendell Beckwith Saturday. Beckwith tore his ACL in the first half of LSU’s 16-10 loss to Florida on Nov. 19.
So in comes Donnie Alexander, a laterally-swift, 212-pound junior with quickness imperative to tracking down Jackson, and other Louisville speedsters, in open field. Orgeron also mentioned true freshman Devin White to control some of Beckwith’s former position.
“Donnie Alexander has done a good job for us, and Dave [Aranda] has done a tremendous job preparing him for the things that we’re going to see,” he said. “Obviously, the speed of the game is going to test us.
“And also Devin White, those guys are doing to have to show up and play. We do have a deficit at linebacker. Kendell Beckwith was a great linebacker for us.”

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Zoe Geauthreaux

LSU coach Ed Orgeron shakes hands with Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino on Friday, Dec. 30, 2016, during a Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl press conference at the Hilton Hotel in Orlando.