What Do Next Few Weeks Look Like for LSU Football?
LSU is right in the middle of a busy month of on campus visits and camps. There are plenty of recruits for the 2022 class and beyond who have toured the practice facility, attended camps and met with the various coaching staff members. It's an important step for Ed Orgeron and the staff for these players to get to meet and evaluate the prospects in person. That 2019 championship team for example, saw 19 of the 22 starters attend a camp at LSU as high school players. Orgeron talked about the benefits of seeing and interacting with the players up close and personal. "It gives us a great evaluation, not only an evaluation but it lets us know how they are mentally, physically, how they handle our drills and it gives them a chance to see how we're gonna coach them," Orgeron said Tuesday on Off the Bench. Just a few of those who have been on campus in recent weeks are commits Walker Howard, Will Campbell, Jake Johnson and JaCoby Mathews as well as recruits offensive linemen Kelvin Banks, Julian Armella, Kam Dewberry, defensive lineman Shemar Stewart and linebacker CJ Washington. According to Garland Gillen of Fox 8 in New Orleans, the enitire Newman recruiting class, including LSU commits AJ Johnson and Bo Bordelon as well as 2023 quarterback Arch Manning, were on campus Tuesday in an unofficial capacity. The next few weeks will continue to be jam packed with on campus visits as some of the nation's top players will be in Baton Rouge while the current team continues preparation for fall camp at the end of the summer. "We've already had nine official visits, we have five official visits coming in this weekend and we're also doing a camp with Frank Wilson in Lake Charles," Orgeron said. "So we're gonna be hustling this week, next week is football school and then our final week we have three official visits and our coaches will be taking some vacation in July." On the current roster, LSU is in offseason workouts and summer school while learning the new offensive and defensive schemes. Players have been present at the various recruiting camps at LSU as instructors, guiding the high school players through various drills. During the week summer school and workouts have monopolized their time. The coaches have not only been hard at work on the recruiting trail but have also started preparing for the opener against UCLA, which on Tuesday announced there would be full capacity at the Rose Bowl for the week one matchup. "Outstanding leadership, we're installing third down, we're going into redzone this week and our guys are able to go out and do position specific skills with their coaches," Orgeron said. "It gives them a chance to work hard and work with the conditions they'll see in fall camp." Another recent revelation that's rocked the college football world has been the recent decision to expand the playoff format from four teams to 12 teams. Some within the sport feel that it would diminish the importance of regular season games but Orgeron is keeping an open mind to the proposed change, which has yet to officially be voted on. "You've gotta have an open mind. I'm going to be 60 years old this summer and I've been coaching for 38 years," Orgeron said. "This change is faster than anything I've seen in the last 38 years but bring it on, lets have an open mind, lets make the correct changes and make LSU the best team it possibly can be."