Oddsmakers have named LSU coach Ed Orgeron as one of the college coaches most likely to be fired this season.

That calculation is based primarily on the expectation that a young Tigers team will have difficulty handling an extremely difficult schedule.

Though the theory that Orgeron has only a short-term future at LSU Tigers is based on football expectations, a series on off-the-field developments aren’t helping the head coach’s job security.

In the less than three weeks since preseason camp began, three players have been suspended after running afoul of the law.

LSU has yet to face Miami, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, Alabama, Texas A&M or anyone else and there’s already reason to wonder whether Orgeron has the program headed in the right direction.

Now it’s worth remembering that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, so it’s too soon to judge guard Ed Ingram, linebacker Tyler Taylor or wide receiver Drake Davis until their cases run their course. But when three players are arrested and accused of felonies in such a short period of time it does raise questions about the head coach and his staff.

Are they doing their jobs in terms of vetting student-athletes before they bring them in and supervising them after they arrive? Sure, there are far more players who don’t get in trouble, who excel in the classroom, who do good works in the community – who represent LSU in a positive light.

But Ingram, Taylor and Davis have made headlines for all the wrong reasons just this month.

Ingram was suspended indefinitely at the start of preseason camp for an undisclosed reason. It was later learned that he is facing charges of aggravated sexual assault of a minor.

Taylor was suspended Aug. 8 when it was learned that he was arrested in May for allegedly being the getaway driver in the burglary of a Georgia pawn shop.

Davis was suspended last Friday after being arrested in Baton Rouge for allegedly punching and grabbing his former girlfriend by the throat on multiple occasions.

That’s serious stuff.

Now, to the football field.

Lowell Narcisse and Justin McMillan announced within 24 hours of one another that they were transferring, leaving the Tigers with just two scholarship quarterbacks.

In its transfer release for McMillan, LSU included a standard caveat that prevents the graduate transfer from joining any school “in the SEC and those on (LSU’s) current schedule the next two years.”

So relax, Tigers fans, McMillan won’t be able to enroll at Northwestern State and come back to haunt LSU in that game next September.

But back to Orgeron.

It’s hard to fault the head coach for the quarterback departures. Narcisse and McMillan chose to leave because they knew Joe Burrow and Myles Brennan had turned what was ostensibly a four-man competition into a two-man competition.

They wanted to play, so they each went in search of a place where they would have a better chance of playing.

That’s understandable, Orgeron said so and by all accounts the two departures seem to have taken place on reasonably good terms.

Nonetheless the departure of two scholarship players at the most important position, and the application of the university’s overly strict transfer restriction policy doesn’t look good, especially when viewed against the backdrop of the legal cases.

If LSU loses to Miami in its season opener Sept. 2, or at Auburn in its SEC opener 13 days later, or hits a rough patch at some other point this season, Orgeron’s critics will be quick to pounce.

While the head coach has spent the last three weeks working to mold a team that won’t provide his critics with football-related ammunition, they’ve already received plenty of non-football ammo.