BATON ROUGE (The Advertiser)— On Monday morning, LSU football coach Ed Orgeron was told by assistant Ya’el Lofton that “The President’s on the phone” as Orgeron was beginning preparations to play Clemson for the national championship on Jan. 13 in New Orleans.

“I thought it was the president of the university,” Orgeron said of outgoing LSU president F. King Alexander, who is headed for Oregon State to be its president. 

“No, the White House,” Lofton said.

“I said, ‘OK, here we go,'” Orgeron said and spoke to the other president – President Donald Trump – the 45th president of the United States.

“Yes, he called me yesterday morning,” Orgeron said Tuesday morning on a College Football Playoff national championship teleconference with reporters. “I was very honored to get the call from President Trump. He was very pleasant to talk to, very complimentary of our football team, our coaching staff, very complimentary of the way the state of Louisiana has rallied around us. He was complimentary of how we played all year, and wished us good luck in the game.”

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