Coach O Wants Back In COaching, And He AlsO Wants To Be On Tiger Rag RadiO – Tuesday Night

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

Former LSU national champion football coach Ed Orgeron, who popularized the phrase “One Team, One Heartbeat” like no one else, has a heart that still beats to be a coach.

After not coaching since beating Texas A&M to end the 2021 regular season at LSU, Orgeron, 64, said on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast Monday that he wants to get back into it.

“I think it’s time,” Orgeron said. “I’m feeling it a little bit. Haven’t made the decision totally, but I’ve got my boys settled coaching football now. It’s been four years since I’ve been out. I’m getting the itch again.”

Orgeron will talk about it on Tuesday night live across his home state of Louisiana on Tiger Rag Radio at 6:30 p.m. The show runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Tune into 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge, 106.7 FM The Ticket in New Orleans, 103.7 FM The Game in Lafayette/Carencro, 104.1 FM in Lake Charles, 94.1 FM in Shreveport/Ruston, 107.1 FM in Ferriday, 1560 AM in Slidell, 1240 AM in Minden and 105.7 FM in McComb, Mississippi.

After a disappointing 5-5 season in 2021 and a 3-3 start in 2022, Orgeron and LSU athletic director Scott Woodward came to an agreement that Orgeron would resign and take a $16 million buyout – just days before Orgeron and his Tigers beat Florida, 49-42, to go to 4-3. Orgeron and Woodward announced the resignation together at a press conference two days after the Florida game. Orgeron agreed to finish the regular season, and LSU ended up 6-6.

Orgeron is a Larose native who signed with LSU as a highly recruited lineman from 1977 state champion South Lafourche High before the 1979 season with coach Charles McClendon, but he quit the team and returned home that August. He later went to Northwestern State and rejoined high school teammate and quarterback Bobby Hebert with the Demons and became a standout defensive tackle.

He was an assistant coach at several colleges for 20 years before getting his first head coaching job at Ole Miss in 2005. He later was the interim head coach at USC in 2013 before returning to LSU as defensive line coach in 2015 and later recruiting coordinator. He became LSU’s interim head coach early in the 2016 season after Les Miles was fired.

After a 6-2 finish, including 4-2 in the SEC in 2016, Orgeron got the permanent head coaching job. He directed the Tigers to a 9-4 and 6-2 season in 2017 and 10-3 and 5-3 in 2018 before winning the SEC title at 8-0 and national championship in 2019. Orgeron broke an eight-game LSU losing streak to Alabama and coach Nick Saban with a monumental, 46-41 win at No. 3 Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2019.

Orgeron’s sons Cody and Parker are both in coaching as analysts for the Miami Hurricanes, where Orgeron was a defensive line coach from 1988-92, helping win the 1991 national championship at 12-0. Another son, Tyler Spotts-Orgeron is an analyst at Tulane.