Ed Orgeron breaks down impact of Neil Farrell Jr. at LSU

Last year, Neil Farrell Jr. opted out of the beginning of his senior season due to COVID-19 and family concerns. Now, the graduate student defensive tackle is fully back — and, according to his coach, “playing his best football.”

Farrell is one of the key pieces of the LSU defensive line and was Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded defensive player last week against Ole Miss. In that game, he had seven tackles, including three tackles for loss, and a sack in LSU’s 31-17 loss to the Rebels. Farrell has 28 tackles this season and six tackles for loss on the season.

That Ole Miss game is one of the reasons why LSU coach Ed Orgeron thinks Farrell could get some NFL looks. The coach discussed Farrell’s impact in a press conference Nov. 4 and had some high praise for the graduate defensive tackle.

“I recruited Neil. He’s very close to his family,” Orgeron told reporters in his Thursday press conference. “He felt that he had to be there for his grandmother, so I honored that. But I told him, ‘If you want to come back, we can’t wait for you to come back.’ And boy, he’s playing his best football and I’m so happy for him.

“He is dedicated. I think he’s going to get the chance to play in the NFL just like he wanted. He’s going to finish the season strong, but right now he’s playing his best ball.”

Farrell and LSU will have their work cut out for them this week, though, when they take on Alabama on the road.

Ed Orgeron, LSU remaining confident heading into Alabama matchup

Alabama is a heavy favorite heading into Saturday’s matchup against LSU. But LSU head coach Ed Orgeron remains confident heading into Saturday night’s game.

Alabama enters the game with a 7-1 overall record and a 4-1 mark in the SEC, compared to 4-4 and 2-3 for LSU. Despite the odds seemingly stacked against the Tigers, Orgeron knows that his team is capable of pulling off a major upset.

“We look at some teams that they played, we look at some games that they played and some teams that we played,” Orgeron said to reporters on Thursday. “Look at the Florida game. Florida, we can move the ball and we moved the ball on Florida. I just want to be positive. I want to give them a shot that you know what, we can go in there and I want these guys to believe that we can play with them.

“Are they a good team? Yeah. Are they one of the best teams in the country? Yeah. But what we know, we know at LSU that you got to go through Alabama to do anything. We get that and they’ve done a great job. (Nick Saban)’s got a great program but we’re up for the challenge.”