BATON ROUGE, La. — The sun is still low in the morning sky and the smell of dew and natural grass waft through the open French doors of Ed Orgeron's office balcony. The LSU Tigers head coach and I are overlooking LSU's massive expanse of four practice fields; the Mississippi River is in the distance.

"I come out here every morning and thank God for this opportunity," Orgeron says, his barrel chest swelling with pride.

Orgeron begins to list the LSU greats who've graced those fields. The Kevin Faulks and Billy Cannons I know. Several of the names I don't recognize — few are as steeped in LSU tradition as the head coach.

I doubt I'm the first person he's taken out on that balcony and given that speech to and I'm surely not the last, but nothing about it feels disingenuous. It's a cinematic moment in what Coach '0' hopes is the beginning end of a screenplay fit for Hollywood.

In 123 years of LSU football, only 13 seasons has seen a Louisiana native be head coach. For the first time since 1983, Louisiana has one of its own — the pride of Larose, Louisiana — sitting in the head coach's office. He's not taking a day of it for granted.

"I've actually given some thought for years — maybe 49 years now," said the 55-year old Orgeron later that afternoon. "Knowing and watching LSU football for all these years and finally getting my feet here and having the opportunity to look out on that practice field and knowing that's where it all happens - because I actually practiced there and I know what the competition is. So that's where I want to start my day every day."

Orgeron, as you probably know, isn't a man lacking in enthusiasm. He's been one of college football's best recruiters for the better part of two decades and he's had some of college football's best defensive line units during much of that period. In his current role as the keeper of LSU football, he seems downright giddy.

During the daily 8 a.m. staff meeting, part of an all-access day granted to 247Sports in mid-March, Orgeron sits at the head of a conference table. A 35-page packet, key details already marked with yellow highlighter, is handed out to everyone in the room.

Essentially, this is Orgeron's daily intelligence briefing, a collection of recruiting articles and information from sites such as 247Sports, Scout.com, Rivals.com and more. Seeing that the Tigers wrapped up a recent Junior Day and that this report encompasses the prior weekend, it's a lot of info. There's a section for macro-level team recruiting news (how the Junior Day went from a national perspective), sections for each of LSU's pipeline states and a results section laying out how the weekend's Opening Regional in New Orleans went.

The staff goes through all this together, with a narrator pointing out the the highlighted portions.

One prospect is quoted as saying that Matt Canada's offense is appealing because he adapts the offense to his personnel.

“That's a great point," Orgeron mutters excitedly.

The staff reads a quote from another article that digs into the ties that a highly-touted out-of-state recruit has to Louisiana.

"Isn't that something!" Orgeron exclaims.

Nothing about these daily recruiting meetings is drudgery to the head man. He's engaged throughout. Energized, even. He embraces his identity as a great recruiter. It's a big reason why he sits in the chair he’s in now.

Orgeron has put together a staff around him — masters at the day-to-day work — that lets him zero in on his strengths. Derek Ponamsky, Special Assistant to the Head Coach, is one critical part of that staff. General Manager Austin Thomas is another.

"This is a job that's a natural fit for me," Orgeron said. "I know Louisiana. I know Louisiana people. Derek has done a good job for me knowing LSU ins and outs. Austin has done a great job for me of running the daily program. I've got some guys that are stronger than me in a lot of areas. I let them do it. Let me do the recruiting and the motivational along with everything else. It's like the pieces of the puzzle all fit together."

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Recruiting players is one thing but Orgeron's recruiting plan extends well beyond the high school fields and into the communities of Baton Rouge, greater Louisiana and even Houston, a place considered 'in-state' to the LSU staff. On the day of my visit, LSU's entire staff spent three hours at a luncheon with some of Baton Rouge's most influential people.

After what was a rocky, dividing late act of the Les Miles tenure, Orgeron is trying to bring the family back together.

"Here's an advantage that I have," he said. "I've watched LSU from afar. I've watched LSU as a fan. I've listened to LSU fans without being involved in the program. I know what the Louisiana people want. They want to be part of it. They want a Louisiana guy in here. I know the powers of Louisiana love LSU. The reason we went in there today wasn't to miss three hours of work I promise you. It was to meet some of the most influential people in Baton Rouge."

Orgeron has even networked with some of the LSU's most influential, Houston-based alumni in the oil and gas industry.

"What we want to do is connect all of these guys, so they know our players and then after graduation, the network is there and they become very successful," Orgeron said. "I've always seen the Louisiana family as powerful. Look, I've tried to recruit against these guys. It's not easy."

There's no secret blueprint for Orgeron. He's got it plastered all over the building and he speaks it proudly. Throughout the program, uniting the LSU family is the presiding theme. It's the less than subtle undertone of the LSU experience video shown to visiting recruits. It's the first thing Orgeron mentions in his afternoon team meeting. "Closer and closer," he said. "Tighter and tighter. Interconnected."

Maps of the state of Louisiana and the greater Houston area adorn the conference room alongside a recruiting board titled "Boys from the Boot" dedicated to Louisiana prospects. Louisiana is genetically predisposed to feed the LSU program. One third of the nine Louisiana high school state champions in 2016 wore the LSU purple and gold. There are 38 high schools in the state that claim the Tiger as their mascot, more than any other mascot.

"I think there's only one tiger in Louisiana and that's Mike the Tiger," Orgeron joked. "It's not like we have a bunch of tigers running around here."

And yet that heritage has been diluted of late with Alabama coming into Louisiana and regularly poaching some of the state's most talented prospects. The 2017 recruiting cycle was the most distressing yet with Nick Saban taking advantage of the LSU instability by landing three of the state's top five prospects and four of the top six if you include Baton Rouge native Dylan Moses, who played his senior season in Florida.

The only way to patch up that fence will be to beat Alabama on the field — something LSU hasn't done since an overtime win in 2011. That's why tough decisions had to be made on the coaching staff most importantly at offensive coordinator. Another critical hire was luring Tommie Robinson to LSU from USC as the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. Robinson was the 247Sports Recruiter of the Year in the Pac-12 for the 2016 class.

"The pieces of the puzzle where you can say everything feels right, right now, is the hiring of the new coaches we brought in," Orgeron said. "There were some holes that we had to fill and I think those guys fill those holes."

Talk to anyone in the know about the newest iteration of Coach O and they express awe at his willingness to reinvent himself, reverence at his acknowledgement of strengths and for his willingness to delegate around his weaknesses.

"He's so different," is the common refrain heard around the LSU facility.

But the new Orgeron seems to be just a distilled version of himself. Other than switching energy drinks from Red Bull to Monster, it's the same Coach O. He's highly concentrated with Louisiana and he's anxious to embrace that makeup.