Ed Orgeron expects more LSU football players to opt out of season

Ed Orgeron is seeing way too many LSU football players leave the program.

LSU football is undergoing a mass exodus with players and head coach Ed Orgeron is well aware.

With six players leaving the program since the early part of August, Orgeron doesn’t think the last opt-out or transfer has happened just yet. “There’s a couple of guys that are thinking about it,” said Orgeron.”… Hopefully, they don’t.” This is a team that lost so much talent to the 2020 NFL Draft. Are the 2020 LSU Tigers about to fall off a cliff or do they have the playmakers to sustain?

Something is up regarding Ed Orgeron’s LSU football team this summer.

Though plenty of players are opting out of playing the 2020 college football season across the nation, it’s weird to see a top-10 team with serious national title aspirations be this decimated this quickly. LSU hasn’t lost a game since 2018, having gone 15-0 en route to its fourth national title in school history last season. Unfortunately, 2020 is not going to be anything like 2019.

The team’s best player in wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was all set on playing for the Bayou Bengals this fall until he wasn’t. He has now decided to forgo his final two years of eligibility and enter the 2021 NFL Draft. Chase would have been the first wide receiver off the board last year had he been eligible. He’s a lock to go in the top 10 this year, possibly as high as a No. 5 overall selection.

Defensive end Justin Thomas elected to transfer from LSU to the UAB Blazers. His fellow defensive line teammate TK McLendon gave up a starting spot for an opportunity to enter the transfer portal. Though Bill Clark is a fantastic coach over in Birmingham, why would one willingly leave the SEC for Conference USA? Then again, why would McLendon surrender a starting spot?

While we don’t know what it is just yet, there is clearly something up with the LSU football program. We shouldn’t be seeing this many players leave the program months before the start of the season, especially from a team that is the reigning national champions. For Orgeron to essentially accept defeat to having other players walking or opting out is incredibly strange.

We’ll understand why this is happening here shortly, but it’s a terrible look for the Bayou Bengals.

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