LSU caught lightning in a bottle with quarterback Joe Burrow and former passing game coordinator Joe Brady. The offense went to levels that won’t be duplicated by anyone likely for quite some time. Burrow threw for over 5,000 yards and 60 touchdowns during his remarkable season.

Fast forward to the start of 2020, both Burrow and Brady are gone, but Ed Orgeron isn’t lowering expectations. He joined FOX Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff analysts to explain why he loves the current state of his team.

“Next man up,” Orgeron said about personnel losses from the 2019 team. “We don’t blink. This is a great opportunity, and we’ve got a lot of hungry guys on this football team. We have a great roster right now. We have as much talent as we’ve had in any year I’ve been here — except the quarterback position. That is going to be the position that is going to have to show up in order for us to have success.”

Myles Brennan is expected to lead the Tigers quarterback position. He’s connected on 42-of-70 passes for 600 yards and 2 touchdowns during his short career. Brennan has some elite pass catchers returning in Ja’Marr Chase and Terrace Marshall, too.

While the offense will be what everyone wants to discuss, Orgeron expects the Tigers defense to take a step forward under new defensive coordinator Bo Pelini.

“I really believe we’ll be better on defense,” Orgeron said. “We didn’t play to the standard that we wanted to play last year. That’s the reason I brought in Bo Pelini to go to a 4-3 defense. I think we’ll be much better on defense this year.”

You can watch the full interview with Orgeron below: