BATON ROUGE - Days after LSU announced head football coach Ed Orgeron would not return for the 2022 season, fans had their first chance to interact with him at his weekly radio show Wednesday night.

Coach O was greeted with an ovation, autograph requests, and plenty of pictures. The purple and gold faithful who attended the hour-long show, choosing to overlook what has been a disappointing season thus far.

"I was very upset and broken-hearted," Kathy Mayer said. "I love Coach O, and he is an awesome coach."

Inside of TJ Ribs Wednesday, it was hard, if not impossible, to tell the program is in the midst of a turbulent time, with a five hundred record, a doozy of a schedule left, and a coaching search now underway.

Fans instead chose to praise the Orgeron era.

"He's going to be dearly missed through all of the LSU fan base," Jared Mullen said. "He did such a great job with the 2019 season. Even though we had a rough 2020 season, he still held in there and actually powered through it."

It was the 2019 season most of the Tiger faithful preferred to remember as Orgeron detailed LSU's Saturday afternoon game plan for Ole Miss.

When it comes to finding Coach O's replacement, some hoping to get the championship team back together might be daydreaming.

"Joe Brady," I don't know if it's possible, Mayer said of LSU's 2019 passing game coordinator. "And Dave Aranda, yes, definitely."

"To be honest with you, [there are] a lot of good people on the list," Mullen said. "I will say again, Dave Aranda and Joe Brady."