For Ed Orgeron and LSU, maybe there will be a ‘normal’ week of football

The third week of the Ed Orgeron era at LSU – however short that era may eventually be – might even go without issues.

And that, in and of itself, would be news.

There hasn’t been a normal week of football yet for Orgeron at LSU since he became the school’s interim head coach on Sept. 26.

In the first week, he was promoted to replace the fired Les Miles. All he had to do was overhaul the coaching staff (he fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, promoted tight ends coach Steve Ensminger to that role and brought in the venerable Pete Jenkins to coach the defensive line), change the practice schedule and prepare for an SEC game against Missouri.

In the second week, there was the postponement of the Florida game due to Hurricane Matthew and the SEC’s indecisiveness leading to the game’s uncertain future.

So in two weeks, he’s lost a boss and maybe the ability to play a game. But what can Orgeron and LSU gain from this experience?

Maybe some much-needed health. And some time to develop.

In the one game the Orgeron-led Tigers did play, a 42-7 rout of Missouri on Oct. 1, it was obvious things have changed. The offense looked different. The practice schedule was drastically changed. The culture was tweaked.

By not playing last week, the Tigers got a second run through the Orgeron process (not to be confused with Nick Saban’s “process”) with its daily practice themes and shorter, faster-paced workouts. It also got another week of offensive installation. Ensminger seems to like to spread the field more and use more formations than Cameron did.

And while one would hate to call this week’s non-conference game against Southern Mississippi a “dry run” — the 4-2 Golden Eagles already own a win against SEC opponent Kentucky — this week gives LSU a third week to go through the Orgeron process before returning to the SEC wars against Ole Miss on Oct. 22.

That’s almost a full training camp worth of installation.

And if that’s not enough finding-silver-linings-through-the-hurricane-clouds thinking for you, consider this:

If Leonard Fournette isn’t 100 percent healthy by the end of this week – and maybe even if he is – sit him out again and get him ready for Ole Miss.

If this wasn’t a year of a fired Miles and an angry hurricane (and more angry LSU fans in the postponement aftermath), a persistent ankle injury to an otherwise perfectly good Heisman Trophy candidate would be the talking point we’d be harping on the most.

Now he gets another week to rest – no sense playing him against a USM team that was just blown out on the road by former LSU recruiting coordinator Frank Wilson’s Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners – before coming back, hopefully healthy, against Ole Miss after having had three solid weeks of rest.

He’s not the only banged up Tiger who could return.

Two of LSU’s starting offensive linemen, right tackle Toby Weathersby and left guard Will Clapp, have a chance to get healthy after both were going to miss the UF game. Tight end Foster Moreau was going to miss the Florida game, more than likely, as well.

And remember Corey Thompson? He was the projected starter at outside linebacker before he suffered a broken leg in August camp that was supposed to sideline him for about the first six games. Florida would have been game No. 6. Ole Miss is two weeks later.

Maybe he’ll be ready, too.

And make no mistake. When the Tigers and Rebels play to resume SEC action for LSU, they’ll need to be all systems go. Check out this stretch: Ole Miss, open, Alabama, Arkansas, South Alabama, Texas A&M. And somewhere in there, Florida.

And considering the most likely make-up date for the Tigers and Gators would have LSU punting the South Alabama game to make room for Florida, the stretch gets that much tougher.

You better have your offense installed and as many healthy bodies as you can muster for that stretch.

So there is some good that could come out of this for LSU, although in a perfect world, we’d be talking about the aftermath of the LSU-Florida game right now, for better or worse.

But this is Baton Rouge in 2016. We’ve already had a summer of civil unrest following the police shooting of Alton Sterling, subsequent protests and the murder of police officers. We’ve had what has been called a once-in-a-thousand-year flood event.

On campus, and far less serious, there’s been the firing of Miles, the upcoming euthanization of the school’s mascot and the prospect of having an SEC game canceled for the first time in the history of the league.

If anybody knows this is far from a perfect world, it’s folks around Baton Rouge and LSU. Finding silver linings and making the most out of things is something that has become the New Normal in these parts.

Gary Laney