ORLANDO, Fla. — Steve Ensminger ran his last play as an LSU quarterback 37 years ago on the same field here — now called Camping World Stadium — where Saturday he will call his last play as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator.
He wouldn’t have it any other way — when the Tigers get home from this business trip to America’s Vacationland, new coordinator Matt Canada will have a go at continuing the LSU offense’s transition into a 21st Century product.
Ensminger will remain on staff, most likely going back to coaching tight ends, but he knew from the beginning that coordinator was a temporary assignment.
“I wasn’t in the running for that job full-time,” he said.
Part of it was the reality. Given the fan unrest over the struggles of the Tigers’ offense in recent years, it was important, if only from a public relations standpoint, that new coach Ed Orgeron make a “splash” with the permanent hire, and Canada seems to fit that bill.
“I’ve been in the business long enough to know that,” Ensminger said. “But (taking over temporarily) was not a (job) interview. I just wanted to win.”
The other side of the equation is that Ensminger never wanted the job in the first place. In fact, you could call him the Reluctant Coordinator.
Thursday might well have been his final full-fledged press conference — it was also his first as LSU offensive coordinator, and only because it was mandated by Citrus Bowl officials.
“I’ve told (LSU SID) Michael Bonnette since they gave me this darn job, I’m not doing media interviews,” Ensminger said, “And he keeps pushing me and making me do it. So, it’s my last one.”
Never mind that he was totally at ease, bordering on candid, and at times even seemed to enjoy jousting with the bowl’s media contingent.
When Orgeron was hired to replace Les Miles four games into the season as “interim” head coach, he made it clear he saw it as a 7-game audition to land his dream job full-time.
For Ensminger, his own
“interim” tag was a prerequisite for hanging around.
The first thing Orgeron did was fire Cam Cameron and summon Ensminger to his office.
“Coach O came and said I want you to be my offensive coordinator,” Ensminger recalled. “I said no. And he said, no, you’re going to do it.”
It wasn’t like Ensminger wasn’t qualified. Not so long ago he was as hot of a coaching commodity as Canada is today, and, after getting his start at McNeese, he’d been offensive coordinator at places like Louisiana Tech, Texas A&M, Georgia, Clemson.
But he didn’t say yes for himself.
“I went to LSU. I played at LSU. And I just wanted our team to get back to where it’s supposed to be, Ensminger said. “I told Coach O, I said, you know what? I’m doing this for you. I think you deserve this job. I said I’m going to do everything I can to make you the head coach right here and make the Tigers win again. That’s it.
“I was doing it for our school, our state and Coach O. I could care less about being the offensive coordinator at LSU, OK? And I told him that. I said I’m doing this for you.”
In a way it was easy, he said, at least being a coordinator again.
He relied heavily on the assistant coaches and wasn’t afraid to delegate responsibilities and let them do their job to help hammer out a game plan.
“It was a group effort, and I can’t say enough about our coaches, and I can’t say enough about our graduate assistants who, literally will stay up there with me at night till 12:30 a.m. to make sure we have everything done. It wasn’t only me.”
Taking over the role as play-caller — also known as the “hot seat” at LSU — was a little tougher. He couldn’t just totally dump what the Tigers’ offense had been doing on for years completely cold-turkey.
“If it’s your system, back when I was coordinator and everything else, (plays) could just roll off your tongue, just what you wanted to call.
“Now, after these last two and a half months or whatever, I feel very comfortable with it.
“But on Thursday and Friday nights, I had to go home, and I had to study, just like (quarterbacks) did, on how I was going to call this play in these situations. Hell, I was studying again — which I never did like in college anyhow.”
There were lapses — the Tigers didn’t score in a 10-0 loss to Alabama and crucial red zone mistakes offset an otherwise productive day in the 16-10 loss to Florida.
But for the most part, LSU’s offense came alive under Ensminger, if nothing else with new energy. Some of it was because more players were getting involved in the offense.
“It was a lot more work. I can guarantee you that,” Ensminger said. “But the fun part about it was, I saw our kids play. We opened it up a little bit. Everybody was excited, and it was fun walking off that field seeing our players smile.”
Best of all, his mission was accomplished — Orgeron is now his full-time boss.
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