BATON ROUGE — Ed Orgeron’s obituary was already written. 

It was a year ago this past weekend that Bé Bé appeared destined to join the ranks of the all-time worst head coaches in LSU football history. A not-so-prestigious list that includes Gerry DiNardo and Curley Hallman.

After taking over as an interim head coach for the fired Les Miles the prior season, Orgeron started his first full season 2-0 but then came the historically awful 30-point beatdown in Stark Vegas to the Fighting Cowbells of Mississippi State. 

The die-hard Tiger faithful, who’s entire wardrobe I suspect consists of nothing but purple and gold and with the word “Geaux” printed on them, went absolute ballistic. Sports talk radio was flooded with screams that the sky was falling in Death Valley and message boards, like Tiger Droppings, were filled with posts that Coach O needed to go. 

It only got worse after a closer-than expected win over woeful Syracuse and then all hell broke loose when Troy of the Sun Belt Conference came into Tiger Stadium and upset the Tigers of the mighty SEC.

Hindsight has now shown us that Troy is a giant killer as it nearly beat eventual national champion Clemson in 2016 and then this past weekend beat Nebraska in Lincoln. Neal Brown will likely be coaching at a Power 5 school next year. 

Even though LSU finished the rest of the regular season 6-1, the obituary had been written on O’s tenure, as many believed it was only time for the program to descend into mediocrity. Early thoughts were the team was going to win at best seven games in 2018. 

That now appears to have been immensely premature. 

LSU enters this Saturday’s home game against Louisiana Tech with a 3-0 overall record, ranked No. 6 in the AP Top 25 Poll, and is the only team in the FBS with a pair of victories over Top 10 teams in Miami and Auburn.

Not bad for a team projected to finish fifth in the SEC West in the preseason, and had only two first-team All-SEC Preseason selections. 

Oh and that hot seat that national pundits believed Orgeron was sitting on is now ice cold and has been passed off to a coaches over in Tallahassee and Los Angeles. 

The narrative was that Orgeron hadn’t learned from his horrendous tenure at Ole Miss — that essentially he was the same old rip his shirt off and chugging Red Bull Coach O. That he was only a glorified defensive line coach who had no business being the head man of any program much less LSU.

And then came the tumultuous fall camp that saw three players be indefinitely suspended (including two starters), a pair of quarterbacks transferring out and the rollercoaster ride of Kristian Fulton losing his appeal to the NCAA and then winning it. 

But what no one anticipated was how Coach O managed to have his team rally around one another, how the distractions and negative talk actually brought them together instead of tearing them apart.

The result has been a focused and determined LSU squad that beat down the much-hyped Hurricanes inside Jerry World, and then went on road as a nine-point underdog and came away with a win on The Plains. 

The defense may be the league’s, and nation’s best, and the team may have the best kicker anywhere in Cole Tracy. Not to mention, Ohio State transfer Joe Burrow has made some big throws while the offense is the only team in the FBS not to commit an offensive turnover.

Yes, there are still some major concerns. Burrow’s completion percentage is a Anthony Jennings-esque 46 percent and the offense is not exactly setting the world on fire, and the offensive line is at best a work in progress.

The surprising start, and expected 5-0 record heading into the game at Florida on Oct. 6, also doesn’t mean that LSU is ready to win the SEC West or jockey for a College Football Playoff berth. 

LSU must survive a gauntlet of difficult games with a three-game stretch the next few months with Georgia, Mississippi State and Alabama all coming to town. That is a monumental task for any coach or team.

But for right now, the Tigers are very much a living and breathing team with realistic title aspirations and are enjoying the moment. 

Which is understandable. You would be in a celebratory mood as well if you woke up, and woke up healthy, after your obituary was published, too.

RAYMOND PARTSCH III is the managing editor of The Daily Iberian.