Orgeron, coaches meet with AD amid LSU’s recent struggles

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU athletic director Joe Alleva held a meeting with coach Ed Orgeron and both of his coordinators this week to hear everyone’s thoughts on why the Tigers have not played well lately.

Orgeron, who discussed the meeting on a coaches’ teleconference hosted Wednesday by the Southeastern Conference, said the gathering with Alleva occurred early this week and was “very positive.”

Orgeron said he, offensive coordinator Matt Canada and defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, “Laid out everything on the table, which direction we’re going to go, what’s going on, how can we fix it. It’s been a very positive week.”

“Joe and I meet all of the time,” Orgeron added. “We said, ‘Let’s bring in the coordinators,’ both he and I. ‘And let’s talk to them. Let’s see what’s going on.’ “

Last month, LSU lost 37-7 at Mississippi State, the Tigers’ most lopsided loss in the history of a series dating back to 1896.

Questions about dissention between Orgeron and Canada arose after a 24-21 upset loss to Troy on Saturday night in which Orgeron sought to simplify Canada’s scheme by reducing pre-snap motions.

Orgeron said he only sought make changes because the Tigers were starting a pair of freshmen on the offensive line, in part because of a lingering ankle injury to senior tackle Toby Weathersby.

Orgeron said this week that he has since returned complete control of the offense to Canada for the second half of the Troy game and that Canada will retain control going forward.

“We feel that we have two very good coordinators,” Orgeron said. Alleva “wanted to know what was going on, what we could do better. We all got on the same page.

“We’re not playing very well. We all know that,” Orgeron added. “We wanted to see what we could correct.”

LSU plays at No. 21 Florida on Saturday.

———

More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP—Top25