Ed Orgeron commends Maason Smith, three-sack performance
LSU head coach Ed Orgeron on Monday commended freshman defensive lineman Maason Smith for his performance on Saturday, as Smith had a career game in just his second appearance for the Tigers. The 6-foot-6, 292-pound native of Houma, Louisiana had six total tackles — five solo — and a whopping three sacks, giving him the second-highest total on the team.
Orgeron, Smith and the Tigers last Saturday faced the McNeesse State Cowboys in a game that LSU went on to win 34-7, but for Orgeron, the game was more than just a simple nonconference tune-up game. Orgeron was tasked with game planning for his son, Cody Orgeron, one of the most decorated quarterbacks in McNeese State program history.
Luckily, for Orgeron, he had Smith anchoring the defensive line and shutting down Cody all game.
“Outstanding,” Orgeron said of Smith’s performance. “I thought he rushed the passer very well against UCLA. He had some great moves in there. We’re using him on third down now, he’s getting better against the run, he has a minor injury that he’s still playing with, but he’s got some bumps and bruises. But the guy is a monster. Cody [Orgeron] told me, he said ‘daddy, when my eyes came up, all I saw was number zero.'”
Smith did not register any statistics during LSU’s Week One matchup against UCLA, but as Orgeron noted, he was an active component of the LSU pass rush. Against McNeese, however, Smith burst onto the scene and even caught the attention of Cody, Ed’s son.
Smith was one of the top defensive line recruits in the country out of high school, ranking No. 1 in the state of Louisiana and among the nation’s top-five best at his position. In his high school career at Terrebonne, Smith had over 200 tackles, 60 tackles for loss and 26 sacks — including a senior year stat line of 63 tackles, 24 tackles for loss, nine sacks and 22 quarterback hurries.
Smith disrupts the Orgeron homecoming
Smith put a dagger through Cody’s first career appearance against his dad, despite Cody being one of the best quarterbacks in McNeese State history.
“I’m watching the film, and I’m kind of cheering for Cody, but I’ve got to stop McNeese which is a little bit different,” Orgeron said through his laughter on ESPN 104.5 Baton Rouge last week, discussing the matchup with his son. “He had a pretty good game last week.”
Orgeron, a sixth-year senior for the Cowboys, has been the program’s starting quarterback since midway through 2018. Last spring, in the FCS’ delayed 2021 season, Orgeron was a two-time SLC Offensive Player of the Week and led McNeese in the season opener to one of its largest comebacks in school history, scoring 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime, then registered a 19-yard touchdown run to send it into double overtime.
Cody ranks ninth in McNeese State program history with 4,336 career passing yards, sixth with 35 career passing touchdowns and eighth with 371 career completions.