Ed Orgeron on postgame incident: “I hope the SEC does the right thing about it”

LSU coach Ed Orgeron spoke publicly Tuesday morning for the first time since his team’s seven-overtime loss to Texas A&M on Saturday night — and the postgame altercation on the field that followed it.

Calling in from the recruiting trail, Orgeron commented on the incident involving LSU analyst Steve Kragthorpe for the first time during an interview on Off the Bench on 104.5 ESPN in Baton Rouge.

“Without getting into details, Coach Kragthorpe is a very good man,” Orgeron said. “He has Parkinson’s disease. He’s very dedicated to our university. He has great character. What happened to him, it should not of happened. There was some unprofessional acts on that football field. I hope the SEC does the right thing about it, and I’m sure they will.”

Full audio of the interview can be found here. 

Videos that surfaced Monday appear to show a man identified as Texas A&M undergraduate manager Cole Fisher — the nephew of Aggie coach Jimbo Fisher — shoving Kragthorpe in the chest. The long-time LSU analyst told Gannett Louisiana on Sunday that he was impacted right on the spot where he had a pacemaker installed last year.

Other details of the incident remain unclear at this point, but Orgeron seemed to agree that this would be the spark of a more intense rivalry between the two SEC West adversaries.

“I wish we’d played them tomorrow,” the coach said.

Orgeron also addressed a few items of note during the interview with Off the Bench. A quick recounting of those:

• Orgeron, who is out recruiting, confirmed that LSU received a verbal commitment on Monday. That news is expected to go public tomorrow.
• Defensive back Kary Vincent approached Orgeron about potentially taking over punt return duties, the coach said. Both Vincent and Jontre Kirklin will get work there before the bowl game.
• Orgeron reiterated that he felt several controversial calls went against LSU on Saturday night: “In 35 years of coaching, I’ve never used officiating as an excuse. There was some bad calls. Four times the game should have been won for LSU. Those calls should have went in our favor and they didn’t. There’s nothing I can do about that. I felt bad about it. Our guys fought. We should have won the game.”