Burrow, Orgeron receive SEC Coaches’ highest honors

BATON ROUGE — After leading the Tigers to a perfect record in the regular season and the program’s 12th SEC Championship, LSU head coach Ed Orgeron and senior quarterback Joe Burrow received SEC Coach of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year honors from the league’s coaches.

The pair became the first from LSU to score the honors in the same season since 1958, when halfback Billy Cannon was named player of the year and Paul Dietzel was coach of the year after leading LSU to its first football national championship.

LSU (13-0, 8-0 SEC) earned the program’s first berth in the College Football Playoff after a record-setting season that included five victories over AP Top-10 opponents.

The Tigers will bring a 14-game winning streak into its CFP National Semifinal game against fourth-ranked Oklahoma on Dec. 28 at 3 p.m. CT in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.

Orgeron and the Tigers have a 9-1 record in the past 10 games against top-10 teams, and are 13-0 for only the second time in school history (2011).

Orgeron was named the AP SEC Coach of the Year on Monday, and was also named a finalist national honors: the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award and the George Munger Coach of the Year Award.

Burrow, also named SEC Offensive Player of the Year by the AP this week, is one of four Heisman Trophy finalists after setting SEC records for passing yards and touchdowns in 2019. His completion percentage and pass efficiency ratings are on pace to break NCAA records.

In LSU’s 37-10 SEC Championship Game victory over then-No. 4 Georgia, Burrow was named Most Valuable Player, finishing with 349 yards and four touchdowns.

The 2019 Tigers set numerous schools records including points in a season (621), points per game (47.8) total offense (7,206), total yards per game (554.3), and passing yards (5,029).

This year’s LSU team is the only squad in SEC history to feature a 4,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers.

2019 SEC Football Individual Awards

COACH OF THE YEAR
Ed Orgeron, LSU

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Joe Burrow, LSU

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Derrick Brown, Auburn

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jaylen Waddle, Alabama

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Bo Nix, Auburn

SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Rodrigo Blankenship, Georgia

JACOBS BLOCKING TROPHY
Andrew Thomas, Georgia