He’s back.
Less than five years after being fired as LSU’s head football coach, Ed Orgeron is coming back home – literally. Hell, he’s still got his house in Redstick.
New head coach Lane Kiffin has added Orgeron to his staff as a special assistant to recruiting and defense, LSU announced on Tuesday.
“I’m excited to bring Coach Orgeron back to LSU,” Kiffin said in a statement. “He brings us tremendous value with his ability to recruit elite players nationally, but especially the impact he can have for us recruiting the great state of Louisiana.
“Coach O understands my expectations and commitment to being a championship program. I look forward to seeing him with recruits and his intensity working with our defensive players.”
Orgeron’s pink slip came less than two years after coaching one of the greatest teams in college football history, the 2019 LSU Tigers who were led by Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, Patrick Queen and Ja’Marr Chase and went 15-0 straight up and 10-4-1 against the spread. They beat seven Top-10 opponents, including a 42-25 win over Clemson in the finals of the College Football Playoff.
But after the Tigers struggled to a 5-5 record during the 2020 campaign, they started 3-3 the next season. Following a loss at Kentucky, ex-LSU AD Scott Woodward made the decision to fire Orgeron ahead of a home vs. Florida.
Even though LSU beat UF 49-42 a few days later, the school announced the move on Monday after the win over the Gators.
As he’s famously explained on many radio shows and podcast appearances through the years, Woodward delivered the bad news to Orgeron about his dismissal.
“He said ‘Coach, you got $17.1 million on your contract. We’re going to give it to you. I said, ‘what time do you want me to leave and what door you want me out of, brother?’”
As it turns out, LSU wanted him to finish out the regular season, and he did so with a smile on his face. Orgeron went out with a win, too, as the Tigers defeated 15th-ranked Texas A&M 27-24 in their regular-season finale at Tiger Stadium.
Orgeron closed out his post-game presser by thanking the media, stating that they were always fair to him and “if ya’ll need me, you can come find me at the beach. And hey, Geaux Tigers!”
For decades, Orgeron has been one of the nation’s premier recruiters in college football, especially in the South and along the Bayou where his Cajun accent relates to those that refer to crawfish as ‘mudbugs’ and call them ‘a delicacy.’
Orgeron’s recruiting prowess as an assistant was pivotal to USC’s success during the Pete Carroll Era. ‘Coach O’ was Carroll’s recruiting coordinator from 2001-2004.
After the Trojans won the national championship in 2004, Orgeron scored his first head-coaching gig at Ole Miss. Orgeron went 3-8, 4-8 and 3-9 before being fired with a dismal 10-25 overall record and a 3-21 ledger in SEC play.
Despite the abysmal win-loss numbers, Orgeron landed the nation’s #16 recruiting class in 2006 and the #18 class (per 247Sports) in 2007. He brought a total of 23 players to Oxford who eventually played in the NFL, including names like OT Michael Oher, RB Dexter McCluster, DE Greg Hardy, DT Peria Jerry, WR Mike Wallace and DT Jerrell Powe.
Orgeron’s recruiting success paved the way for his successor, former Arkansas HC Houston Nutt, to enjoy a bunch of success in his first two seasons. Nutt led the Rebels to consecutive 9-4 records and back-to-back wins at the Cotton Bowl. They even beat Tim Tebow and the Gators at The Swamp in 2008 when Florida eventually won the national title.
Once Nutt’s Ole Miss roster started to consist of a majority of his players rather than Coach O’s recruits in 2010 and 2011, the Rebels went 4-8 and 2-10, respectively, and Nutt was fired.
Orgeron had worked with Kiffin on Carroll’s staff at USC from 2001-2004. Therefore, when Kiffin was hired as the new HC at Tennessee in 2009, he made Orgeron his first hire as defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.
When Kiffin bolted Knoxville to take the USC job a year later, Orgeron went with him. After Kiffin was fired in 2013, Orgeron was named the Trojans’ interim HC.
USC compiled a 6-1 record in Orgeron’s first seven games as interim HC, including a 20-17 win over fifth-ranked Stanford with the lone loss coming at Notre Dame by a 14-10 score. It seemed as if ‘Coach O’ had a great shot at landing the job permanently until the Trojans lost a 35-14 decision to 22nd-ranked UCLA in their regular-season finale.
Instead, the school decided to hire Steve Sarkisian. Orgeron was so disappointed that he took a year off from coaching, but USC’s poor decision (Sark was fired during his second season for alcohol abuse) turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
In 2015, Les Miles hired Orgeron as his defensive line coach at LSU. When Miles blew yet another game due to kindergarten clock-management mistakes at Auburn in Week 4 of the 2016 campaign, he was fired and Orgeron was tabbed as the interim HC.
Orgeron produced a 5-2 record, including a 38-21 home win over 23rd-ranked Ole Miss and a 38-10 win at 25th-ranked Arkansas. Both losses came at home vs. top-ranked Alabama (10-0) and 23rd-ranked Florida (16-10).
Two days after a 54-39 win at Texas A&M in LSU’s regular-season finale, the school took the interim label off and named Orgeron as its new HC. Five weeks later, he led the Tigers to a 29-9 win over 13th-ranked Louisville at the Citrus Bowl.
Orgeron posted 9-4 and 10-3 records before the program’s run to a national title in 2019. His final record as HC at LSU was 51-20 overall and 31-17 in SEC play.
FanDuel has LSU installed as an 11.5-point home favorite vs. Clemson in its 2026 season opener. The Tigers have a season win total of 8.5 flat (-110 either way). They have +850 odds to win the SEC Championship Game and are +2000 (or 20/1) to win the CFP.