Coach O Loves Bo, That May Buy Pelini More Time At LSU

Through three games of the college football season, LSU has been terrible. Especially on defense. It should cost Bo Pelini his job. It won't.

We are going to ignore the seven point "defensive effort" against Vanderbilt. Derek Mason has run the 'Dores back into the ground, and should be fired, too, and so we have to focus on the other two games that exposed the Bayou Bengals.

The opening weekend of the season saw Mississippi State shred the defending champs. Most everyone gave LSU a pass and crowned Mike Leach the Coach of the Year.

Excuses were plenty: It was not the LSU of last year. The team was only bringing back four starters on either side of the ball. It was missing its entire secondary, including Derek Stingley Jr.

Blah, blah, blah.

None of that holds water anymore.

Also, none of that was the problem against Mike Leach. The problem was that Pelini refused to get out of man coverage.

It resulted in KJ Costello setting SEC records in passing yards -- the same KJ Costello who was benched this week as Mississippi State didn't score on offense against Kentucky, and after he played awful in a loss to Arkansas.

Vanderbilt was the next game and LSU was LSU again. Whatever.

Saturday, LSU lost to Missouri.

MISSOURI.

This time it was Connor Bazelak, a redshirt freshman, that lit up what was formerly DBU. He completed 29 of 34 attempts for 406 yards and four touchdowns.

Oh, Missouri was without its top THREE receivers due to Covid contact tracing protocols. It still nearly put up 600 yards of offense.

Pelini became a meme.

He needs to become a high school football coach.

The problem now becomes Ed Orgeron. He is a loyal man that we respect. He is loyal to a fault.

“I love Bo,” Orgeron said after the game. “I think Bo’s going to be a great defensive coordinator. He’s done it before. But we have to get better.”

Pelini was hired in the offseason to replace Dave Aranda, who took the head coaching job at Baylor -- which shut down its program.

The challenge for Pelini and LSU only ramps up this coming weekend. After getting scored by SEC alsorans it is slated for Florida, its high-powered passing attack, and the best tight end in the country, Kyle Pitts.

The last time LSU was 1-2 was 1994, the final year of Curley Hallman’s tenure as coach. If Orgeron remains loyal to Pelini, he could quickly become a former LSU coach, too.