Ed Orgeron is back!
Lane Kiffin has hired former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron as an assistant on his staff, the program announced Wednesday. The deal brings Orgeron back to his home state and reunites him with Kiffin after working under him at USC and Tennessee.
Orgeron’s title will apparently be special assistant to recruiting and defense, though he officially won’t be allowed to go on the road and recruit for the program due to recruiting rules.
Orgeron has been out of coaching since agreeing to part ways with the Tigers in 2021. He coached LSU for six years, winning a national championship in 2019 with one of the most dominant rosters in the history of college football that was also littered with NFL talent.
But everything fell apart for Orgeron after that as he went 11-11 for the rest of his tenure. More troubling was a Title IX lawsuit alleging he didn’t report a rape allegation involving former player Derrius Guice, though he was later dropped as a defendant.
Orgeron first worked with Kiffin when they were assistants under Pete Carroll at USC. They joined forces again when Kiffin hired him to be associate head coach, recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach at Tennessee, with Orgeron following him to become defensive coordinator at USC. He worked as the interim head coach at USC after Kiffin was fired in 2013.
Orgeron’s hire continues a curious trend for LSU, which has now hired three different coaches it’s fired in the past decade. Former men’s basketball coaches Will Wade and Johnny Jones were both brought back this spring, with Wade as the head coach and Jones an assistant.
