By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
When LSU football assistant coach Ed Orgeron was promoted to interim head coach during the 2016 season for the fired Les Miles, he preached, “One team … one heartbeat,” and “Block out the noise.”
When assistant coach Frank Wilson was promoted to interim head coach on Oct. 26 after Brian Kelly was fired that same day, he chose a constant drum beat like a heart to block out the noise.
Orgeron took over a 2-2 team and went 5-2 to finish 7-4 and got the interim removed from his title. He went 9-4 and 10-3 in 2017 and ’18 before LSU’s best season ever – 15-0 and the national championship in the 2019 season.
Wilson, an old friend of Orgeron who coached under him at Ole Miss and LSU and with him at Tennessee and LSU, gets his chance beginning Saturday when the Tigers (5-3, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) play at No. 4 Alabama (7-1, 5-1 SEC) in prime time at 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
Welcome to Louisiana Shakespearean University … LSU athletic director Scott Woodward gets the dagger 4 days after knifing football coach Brian Kelly.https://t.co/kT0otYNs6N
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) October 31, 2025
The game follows a dramatic open date that saw the firings of Kelly on Oct. 26, offensive coordinator Joe Sloan on Oct. 27, athletic director Scott Woodward, who hired Kelly, on Oct. 30 amid Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry getting involved. Landry advised LSU Board of Supervisors members at a Governor’s Mansion meeting on Oct. 26 to fire Woodward, according to sources.
Landry said at an Oct. 29 press conference that Woodward would not hire the next coach partly becaus he gave Kelly a “terrible contract” when he hired him in December of 2021 after Orgeron’s firing. The contract was for $100 million over 10 years with a $52.3 million buyout as of Oct. 26. (That is under negotiation by both sides toward a possible significantly lower total.)
ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Verge Ausberry comments on his “new” job title: https://t.co/WIOzipWPUl
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 7, 2025
The next day on Thursday, Oct. 30, LSU fired Woodward and replaced him with deputy executive athletic director Verge Ausberry as interim, but that was removed this week.
Caught up? Maybe you need to bang a drum slowly.
There have been harder and more physical practices, but Wilson has taken a quieter approach than did the high energy Orgeron. Wilson or an assistant coach bangs a large drum that has been placed in the team meeting room slowly to shut the outside world down as the Tigers start each day.
“I wanted to bring that symbolism, if you will, of the heartbeat,” Wilson said. “So we could charge our team. When the ball goes in play, life has been injected into us.”
“Bang The Drum Slowly” is the title of a classic and tragic baseball novel by Mark Harris that was published in 1956 and made into a movie with actor Robert De Niro in 1973. The phrase is associated with funerals and taking in sad news slowly. And LSU has been through something very similar.
Senior linebacker West Weeks feels that the slow beat of the drum calms and restores the team each day at 2 p.m. before meetings and practice.
“So much stuff has been going on the last week and a half,” Weeks said during Tuesday interviews in the players’ meeting room with the drum right there. “I think the drum makes this our safe spot. I mean, it’s obviously a time of change for us. Change is going to happen no matter what. When he beats that drum, it sets the tone for the day. Whatever happened the previous day, whatever happened earlier in the day, that goes out the window. And it helps us lock in for the day.”
Weeks is going through a head coaching change for the second time in his college career. While a freshman at Virginia in the 2021 season, his head coach Bronco Mendenhall resigned before finishing the season at 6-6 and 4-4 (Atlantic Coast Conference). Weeks transferred to LSU before the 2022 season.
“It is a surreal thing for me,” he said. “Now, my coach gets fired with four games left.”
He needs that rhythmic beat of the drum.
“I know everything on social media’s going crazy,” he said. “People are saying whatever they want to say about this team and how this season’s turned out. But when we come in here and hear that drum, it just reminds us of the brotherhood that we have, and each day is a new day.”
To cornerback Mansoor Delane, the beat has lifted spirits as well as nappers.
“That’s part of the energy coach Wilson has brought,” the senior transfer from Virginia Tech said. “You can only mourn about what’s happened for so long. Sometimes people are napping in here before the meeting, and that drum wakes them up.”
Many LSU fans were enthused by the firing of Kelly after four straight seasons without reaching the College Football Playoff, but not all the players felt that way.
“That’s a man who just lost his job,” Delane said. “You always have got to be considerate of something like that. But it’s part of this business, and you’ve got to move on quick. We’re ready to play a game.”
And Wilson and his coaches do tend to bang the drum faster and louder after the slow start.
“He’ll come in here calm and collected going through what we have for the day on the schedule,” LSU junior center Braelin Moore said. “And then he’ll just flip the switch and start screaming and getting people excited. Then when he starts smacking the drum, it’s like energy. And you just feel the room is different.”
Word is Wilson has packed the drum for the trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
“Yeah,” Moore said. “He’s trying to bring that swagger back and that juice that LSU was known for.”
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