BATON ROUGE - One week after thanking a questioner for commenting on the lack of recent off-field incidents involving his football program, LSU coach Ed Orgeron is now digesting the second university directed, indefinite suspension of one of his players in less than a week.
Orgeron announced last Friday that sophomore starting right guard Ed Ingram of DeSoto, Texas, was suspended indefinitely for violating a university policy, which is possibly academic related.
But on Wednesday, there was more serious news.
LSU sophomore inside linebacker Tyler Taylor of Buford, Georgia, was arrested on three felony charges last May connected to a burglary in January of a pawn shop in Cumming, Georgia - 23 miles from his hometown, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported and LSU confirmed. For LSU athletes, one felony charge is an automatic indefinite suspension from all participation in their sport, according to LSU policy. LSU confirmed the report by the Baton Rouge Advocate
A felony charge is significantly more serious than a misdemeanor charge and often carries a prison term if there is a conviction.
Taylor was arrested on felony charges of theft by receiving stolen goods, conspiracy to commit a crime and being party to that crime.
Taylor, 19, drove three men and a juvenile in a getaway car after the Jan. 8 burglary of the Pawnopoly pawn shop, according to the Cumming Police Department. The men stole eight shotguns, three rifles and a semi-automatic rifle, according to the police incident report. After an investigation of surveillance video at Pawnopoly and phone records that lasted through May, Taylor was booked into a Cumming jail before having a bail of $44,550 posted five hours later, according to the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.
A court date has not been set. Taylor has not been charged by the district attorney's office yet, but it is not uncommon for that to be delayed.
Taylor was the No. 8 inside linebacker in the nation in 2017 out of Lanier High School in Buford by Rivals.com when he signed with LSU over Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Georgia Tech and Alabama, among others. He started five games last season, including the finale loss to Notre Dame in the Citrus Bowl, and played in all 13. He made 32 tackles with 1.5 sacks. Taylor (6-2, 242) had been practicing with the Tigers since preseason camp opened on Saturday before being held out on Wednesday.
News of the arrest and suspension broke Wednesday night after Orgeron had spoken at a press conference about practice.
"Thank you for saying that. Thank you for noticing," Orgeron said at a speaking engagement for the Baton Rouge Rotary Club at Tiger Stadium on Aug. 1 when a questioner praised his team for the lack of off-field incidents.
"We're very close to our football team," Orgeron continued. "I attribute it (the lack of incidents at the time) to recruiting. When we recruit, red flags are going to pop up. Not everybody is going to be an angel. We talk to the high school coaches. We talk to the counselors. We ask tough questions. If there are red flags, we do extensive research on that young man. We want to protect our team in everything that we do. Our guys know that I'm a players' coach. I care about them. But just like with my kids, if they cross the line, they're gong to see a side of me that they don't want to see."
