LSU took a ton of people by surprise last season, including the opposing coaches that discussed the program. Magazine season is fast upon us, and the release today of Lindy’s Sports College Football Preview revealed new takes on the Tigers.

Speaking anonymously, opposing coaches for the 2019 season have different expectations for LSU. Orgeron, considered by many to be on the hotseat last summer, coached his way into impressing plenty of people in the last year.

“I thought Ed Orgeron did a nice job last year,” one opposing coach said anonymously. “He does a good job recruiting. He's one of them (Cajun). LSU doesn't always do a good job evaluating, but Ed's done a good job. Tennessee should have hired him after Lane Kiffin left (after the 2009 season). He'd have done a helluva lot better than Derek Dooley or Butch Jones. If Ed had stayed at Tennessee, Tennessee would probably be the best program in the East right now."

Offensively, LSU returns starting quarterback Joe Burrow. Things will look different in 2019 with the staff addition of Joe Brady from the New Orleans Saints.

“I like their quarterback, Joe Burrow,” a coach said. “He's very efficient, tough. (OC) Steve Ensminger does a good job putting him in situations where he can succeed. But LSU is still not where they would like to be offensive-line wise."

LSU’s defense lost stars Greedy Williams and Devin White to the next level. Grant Delpit will be back as the new face of the defense.

“Dave Aranda is a consistently good coach — as good of a defensive coordinator as there is in the SEC,” an opposing coach said, anonymously. “They're good defensively, but really, by their standards... not great."

Orgeron recently ranked sixth in the SEC among head coaches in a breakdown from CBS Sports.

“Earlier, I mentioned how there was a narrative around (Les) Miles at LSU that it was the job that was responsible for the success and not the coach,” CBS Sports wrote. “I think Orgeron suffers from that same narrative. He's been at LSU since taking over for Miles in 2016 and is 25-9. If we include his time as USC's interim coach, he's 31-11 in his last four seasons as a head coach. I can't help but think his failures at Ole Miss are having too big an impact on him in our rankings. That said, considering he just climbed 26 spots in our rankings, I think we're all coming around on him."