LSU left Alabama earlier this week, Orgeron wants game postponed

The Alabama-LSU game seemed so unlikely at the start of the week that the Tigers could already move on to next week.

Speaking on the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday morning, LSU coach Ed Orgeron explained the situation after positive COVID-19 tests and search for contracts severely limited his roster with Alabama which was due to go on Saturday.

“At the start of the week, we were going all out on Arkansas,” Orgeron said. “We didn’t think the Alabama game was going to happen and maybe we thought it might happen, so we went back to Alabama. And then we found out for sure yesterday that we weren’t playing, but I want to commend the SEC for doing the right thing for the safety of our players.

Of course, the SEC announced on Tuesday that Saturday’s Alabama-LSU game would be postponed. No makeup date has been set and Orgeron is not sure exactly where things stand.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said Wednesday. “I’ve heard a lot of things, that I don’t know, but every time they tell us to play, we’ll be ready to play.

And Orgeron said they really wanted to play the first Tide.

“We look forward to the postponement of the game against Alabama,” he said. “We want to play in Alabama. It’s a great rivalry for us against a great football team and we want to take up this challenge.

For now, they move on to the game scheduled for next Saturday in Arkansas. Orgeron said the Tigers (2-3) would resume training for the Razorbacks on Wednesday with a very limited roster due to COVID-19 issues.

LSU punter Zach Von Rosenberg was the alternate quarterback on Tuesday and even threw a touchdown pass.

“The whole team was applauding,” said Orgeron.

News of the Alabama postponement was released just before they arrived on the field.

“We had one of our best practices yesterday,” Orgeron said Wednesday. “We found out that we weren’t playing Alabama when the kids were at the reunion, so right before the start I told them we weren’t playing this week. We will be reprogramming Alabama and the practice that we will do (Tuesday) will be for Alabama and they had a lot of energy. I cut off some time and we had a great practice.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on twitter @ByCasagrande Or on Facebook.