BATON ROUGE, La. — Danny Etling, the consummate consumer of game film, said there will be one obvious impact of LSU interim head coach Ed Orgeron’s new policy of shorter practices and more time in the film and meeting rooms.

“I’ll sleep more,” he said. “When I had to watch it on my own, I’d end up staying up late.”

Getting more rest is exactly the reason why Orgeron made one of the more drastic changes he instituted when he replaced the fired Les Miles as LSU’s head coach on Sunday following the Tigers’ disappointing 2-2 start. And while he wasn’t necessarily talking about his quarterback’s sleep, he apparently felt Miles had the team beating itself up too much.

It’s one of many changes Orgeron is making in hopes of turning the Tigers’ fortune around, “flipping the script” as he puts it.

Here are the changes he’s making.

Shorter practices

Orgeron thought the team perhaps expended too much energy at practice, and statistics seem to support his argument.

In four games this year, the Tigers have been outscored 32-0 in the fourth quarter.

“Less time on the practice field and more time in the meeting room and hopefully, we’re fresh,” Orgeron said.

Impact: We’ll see Saturday if the Tigers look more energized in the fourth quarter. Also, will more time observing the opponent lead to the players better understanding both their own tendencies and the opponents’? That’s something that will be hard to measure.

Practices Open

Orgeron has spent much of his career at USC, which has famously open practices.

He’s opening LSU’s practices, something Miles rarely did. LSU allowed media into practices on rare occasions in fall camp and never again once the season neared. Orgeron opened the entire Monday walkthrough — just 30 minutes long (see above) — to the media.

He’s also inviting former players to practice and letting them join the team on the traditional walk down “Victory Hill” before games.

Impact: Obviously, Orgeron wants to reach out to his alumni base in the program. That will have a bigger effect in the long run if he becomes the permanent head coach.

Revamped Offense

The biggest frustration fans had with Miles was his conservative, and some would call unimaginative, offense.

It wouldn’t be right to say a conservative offense is why Miles is gone, but completely reasonable to say the Tigers’ lack of success on offense — 13th in the SEC in scoring (21 ppg) and 12th in total offense (339.5 ypg) are the biggest culprits to his downfall.

So Orgeron promised change, saying the Tigers “will spread the ball out a little bit, do some different things, change the style of play.”

What does that mean? When he was interim head coach at USC, the Trojans were a more balanced team that utilized its running backs and receivers somewhat evenly. While it might not make sense to be balanced when you have a player like Leonard Fournette, Orgeron said it has to be more balanced.

“Obviously, we know people hold up the box on Leonard and Derrius Guice, and we want to put the ball in our playmakers’ hands. We want to throw short for the quarterback and move the ball down the field. You have to score points these days.”

Impact: This is the game-changer. If the Tigers can achieve some balance with the passing game to complement Fournette, it’ll be hard for defenses to stop them.

Revamped coaching staff

When word spread that Miles had been fired, it was also quickly reported that offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was gone, too. But then came word that it wasn’t the LSU administration that fired Cameron but Orgeron who made that call.

Moving Orgeron, who was the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator, to head coach and cutting the offensive coordinator required drastic changes.

Among them:

  • Orgeron hired Pete Jenkins, the venerable 74-year-old former college and pro defensive coach, to replace him as defensive line coach.
  • Tight ends coach Steve Ensminger, a former offensive coordinator at Clemson, Georgia and Texas A&M, will take over as offensive coordinator.
  • Wide receivers coach Dameyune Craig replaced Orgeron as recruiting coordinator.
  • Defensive coordinator Dave Aranda took the associate head coach role, another title Orgeron had before the switch.
  • Eric Mateos, a graduate assistant, replaced Ensminger as tight ends coach.
  • Dennis Johnson, another graduate assistant, replaced Bradley Dale Peveto as outside linebackers coach (more on that later).
  • Austin Thomas was promoted to Director of Player Personnel, replacing David Dingman, who was let go.

Impact: The important move was with Ensminger replacing Cameron. Etling said the Cameron LSU playbook is deep enough where Ensminger won’t have to introduce new plays. He’ll simply have to pick and choose plays and packages more to his and Orgeron’s liking. Look for a little less fullback and maybe more receivers.

More emphasis on special teams

The numbers, at times, are bad.

Last in the SEC in kickoff return average (17.3), 13th in yards per punt (39.1) and two extra points blocked, making the Tigers the worst team in the SEC in converting PATs. An onside kick recovered by the opponent.

The mediocre (at best) special teams play wasn’t the fault of Peveto, the special teams coordinator, per se, Orgeron suggested. Rather, the problem was that Peveto did not devote all his time to special teams.

That’s why Peveto was relieved of his duties as outside linebackers coach, leaving him more time to focus on special teams.

“I talked to Coach Peveto and I asked him just to — to devote all his time to special teams, and we gotta get better there,” Orgeron said on Monday. “We got some ideas. He’s been working on it all day. You’re going to see a new and improved special teams, and Bradley Dale is not going to coach defense. He’s done a tremendous job on defense, but I wanted him to concentrate all his efforts on special teams.”

Impact: This is an area where LSU drastically needs to improve. The Tigers consistently sign talent that can make good special teams players, so there is no reason they should be last in the league in kickoff returns, for example. Allowing Peveto to focus on special teams should only help.