LSU coach Ed Orgeron has long resonated as one of the game’s most endearing characters, a Red Bull guzzling, shirt ripping and Cajun-growling paragon of intensity. The Tigers fan base and administration bit hard after Orgeron rallied LSU’s program to a 6-2 record as interim coach last year. But since Orgeron’s transition to full-time head coach in November, LSU’s storied football program has been an abject disaster.

LSU’s 24-21 loss to Troy University of the Sun Belt on Saturday night provided a new low, as LSU didn’t just lose to a three-touchdown underdog. They got pushed around the field, out-toughed and dominated in the trenches.

The adrenaline shot Orgeron gave LSU as an interim has worn off. LSU officials are adjusting to a dreary day-to-day reality of Orgeron being in charge, chasing an adrenaline high that may never return. Squint and it’s starting to look like Orgeron’s stint at Ole Miss when he went 3-21 in SEC play.

Orgeron is 3-2 through five games this season, with a blowout loss to a mediocre Mississippi State team, its first non-conference home loss since 2000 and a narrow win over sputtering Syracuse. It’s the tenor of the results that are most troubling, as LSU inexplicably lacks the passion, fire and intensity that turned Orgeron into a caricature.

“They don’t play hard,” a veteran college coach texted after watching the Troy debacle on Saturday night. “Troy was more physical!”

Yahoo Sports conducted a half-dozen interviews last week with coaches, scouts and analysts who played LSU or studied them extensively this season. The results came back alarmingly consistent, an ugly autopsy that pinpointed all the things you wouldn’t expect from an Orgeron team: lack of effort, uninspired play at the line of scrimmage and a penchant to quit when things get tough.

No one expected Orgeron to be an X’s and O’s savant or a visionary program builder. Expensive coordinators Matt Canada and Dave Aranda were given lucrative contracts to handle the details of the program. Orgeron’s job was to be the Cajun Dabo, delivering mojo, recruiting juice and motivation. Instead, the scary reality is that these Tigers don’t have any of the traits long associated without Orgeron. Somehow, the coach famous for his growl has a program with no bite.

“It wasn’t what you expect,” said one assistant coach. “You expect guys ready to kick your ass. There wasn’t any fire. Genetically they weren’t as good. On film, they weren’t as good. But these guys, I don’t know. These guys, I don’t even know what to say. I can’t believe they play the way they do. They’re soft. Soft. It doesn’t make sense.”

Added another personnel executive: “When everything got super tough against Mississippi State, they tapped out. State was giving it to them and they didn’t want any piece of it. They were tapping out the entire game.”

Former LSU star Booger McFarland saw similar traits. McFarland, now an analyst for ESPN, said that LSU “quit” in the fourth quarter of the Mississippi State game and worries that Canada’s spread system will rob LSU of its smash-mouth identity. McFarland sees the issue with LSU as more of a talent deficit than a coaching problem. But he doesn’t deny troubling signs.

“My biggest fear when they hired Matt Canada was LSU getting soft, and it’s happening before our eyes,” he said in an interview before the Troy game. “They’re not physical on the line of scrimmage. It’s a byproduct of the offense, which goes side-to-side. They’ve lost the ability to go north-south and be physical.”

It’s one of the biggest paradoxes in college football – an Ed Orgeron team gone soft. Think of a Mike Leach team playing with three tight ends or David Shaw rolling out the Run-And-Shoot. Heck, picture Nick Saban giving a press conference that doubles as a Saturday Night Live audition.

“They’re just standing there,” said another assistant coach who studied LSU’s defense. “They weren’t running to the ball. It baffles me. I don’t know Dave Aranda, but I know they’re paying him a s—load of money.”

How talented is LSU? The consensus from the NFL is that they’re not as talented as in the past. A coaching transition and the recruiting atrophy of the late years of Les Miles – especially at the quarterback and line positions – has caught up to LSU. McFarland predicts they need two recruiting cycles to catch up in the SEC, as the depth, especially on the lines, is non-existent.

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