HOOVER, Ala. - This time last year, LSU was on the verge of being picked fifth in the West at the Southeastern Conference's annual media days event.
The Tigers had a schedule loaded out of the gate with September showdowns against Miami and Auburn, and October brought about a four-game stretch in five weeks against Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State and Alabama. LSU had not been picked so low at SEC Media Days since 2000, and bowl eligibility was a real topic.
LSU responded by blowing out Miami, stunning Auburn on a last-second field goal and racking up a 10-win season that concluded with a victory over Central Florida in the Fiesta Bowl.
"Last year there was negativity," Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said Monday as the 2019 media event opened. "People didn't know what type of football team we were going to have. This year they say we're going to have a really good football team, and I do believe we're going to have a really good football team, but we have to get back to work.
"We have to get back to the true grit and to the fundamentals it takes at camp and block out the noise."
The Tigers transitioned from their traditional downhill offensive attack to more spread elements last season, and that transition will continue this year following the addition of assistant coach Joe Brady, who has spent time at Penn State and with the New Orleans Saints. Orgeron said that Brady, the passing-game coordinator and receivers coach, will assist offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger in maximizing quarterback Joe Burrow's talents.
Orgeron didn't hesitate to bestow praise on his secondary that is headed by junior safety Grant Delpit and also includes Kary Vincent, Jacoby Stevens, Kristian Fulton, Todd Harris, Eric Monroe and freshman Derek Stingley, who is projected to start at the cornerback spot opposite Fulton.
"I think this is the best group of defensive backs I've ever coached in 35 years," Orgeron said.
Kelly Bryant, of Missouri, speaks during the NCAA college football Southeastern Conference Media Days, Monday, July 15, 2019, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)'A weird day'
Former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant announced in early December that he had decided on Missouri as his transfer destination.
By late January, however, Bryant suddenly discovered that Barry Odom's Tigers would be ineligible for a bowl game this year.
"Coach Odom came in to deliver the message - it was just a weird day," Bryant said. "Everybody was getting texts about a mandatory team meeting, and I was like, 'Did somebody get fired?' When we walked in, everybody was real serious. Coach Odom didn't hold back anything and told us what we were up against, and he told us he would do everything in his power to make it right.
"A week before that, as a team we had laid out our goals, and now we couldn't achieve some of those goals."
The school could have its appeal heard before the NCAA later this month, with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey explaining Monday that the league would serve in an advisory role.
"We are not investigators, and that is now a 15-year approach by our conference," Sankey said. "I'm always reserve to comment about decisions, but the infractions appeals committee certainly has an opportunity, it appears, and I'll leave it at that."
Odds and ends
Sankey announced that next year's preseason media event will return to the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, which is where it was held for the first time last summer, and that Nashville will host it in 2021. ... The SEC has opened up some basic information about rules and its officials at secsports.com/officiating. LSU's secondary may not include sophomore Kelvin Joseph, a top-50 national prospect in 2018 who reportedly has entered the transfer portal for a second time this year.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.