On Saturday night, video of Coach O expressing his thoughts on “Roll Tide” with some colorful language in the LSU locker room made the rounds on social media.
In a video posted to Instagram, Orgeron uses some explicit language to verbalize how he felt about Alabama after his team’s massive road win over the Crimson Tide. Of course, that spread like wildfire and there were plenty of takes on what he said. On the latest episode of the “College Football Podcast with Herbie and Pollack,” ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit reacted to what Orgeron said.
Herbstreit didn’t necessarily take issue with what Orgeron said, but more so that it was allowed to get into the public eye. Herbstreit stated that moments like that need to be kept private and stay within the locker room instead of being blasted out to social media. While Alabama may remember that the next time it plays LSU, Herbstreit didn’t see Orgeron’s comments as reason to take away from what his team did on Saturday.
“You would think most people would know, in the midst of a postgame celebration, not to record anything,” Herbstreit said. “Have you music on. Record each other smiling, having fun, and dancing. All that is fine, but you cannot record the coach and what he says. I remember Mike Tomlin, when he made some comments, Antonio Brown had video of that. It’s the all-time no-no … When a coach is talking, when he’s emotional, and when he’s fired up, he’s going to say some things that you don’t want the world to know about. That’s just a given. Hopefully it won’t get a lot of traction. I’m sure Alabama will use that next time they play LSU, but I’m not allowing that to take away from just a magical weekend and a great moment for LSU.”
The College GameDay star also noted that Orgeron’s attitude is a big reason for the culture change in Baton Rouge. That type of mentality has helped the Tigers become a legitimate national championship contender with Orgeron at the helm.
“We talk Brady and Burrow a lot, but Coach O is the captain, man,” Herbstreit said. “He’s driving this thing. That bravado, that attitude, that go-for-broke mentality comes from him. We’ve got to make sure we give him all the credit for what we’re seeing from LSU right now.”
On Monday, Orgeron addressed the video and said that it never should have happened. The LSU coach spoke to the player who took the video and knows that it wasn’t done with bad intentions. Orgeron doesn’t believe it will be an issue going forward.
"I wished that wouldn’t have happened," Orgeron said. "That shouldn’t have happened. I addressed the player that did it and he felt bad about it. They are so used to having those phones on them all the time. I mean, we have pre-game meal, and I tell them to turn the phones off for just a little bit so we can say the prayer. We say the prayer, and they are back on their phones.
"I think it’s just the product of today. Everyone carries their phone with them all the time. I don’t think it was done with (bad) intent. I addressed the player and I don’t think it’s going to happen again."
After a game like the one between Alabama and LSU, there are bound to be emotional moments in the locker room, but maybe that’s where they should stay.