After spending six years as the head coach, leading the Tigers to a national championship in 2019, Ed Orgeron is returning to LSU to join Lane Kiffin’s staff.
Sometimes, college football creates some of the wildest marriages that you could imagine. And this latest move by the Tigers will surely create a buzz along the Bayou.
After spending the past number of years outside of the game, providing us with plenty of hilarious moments along the way, the stars aligned for the former head coach to return to LSU after being let go in 2021 by former athletic director Scott Woodward.
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But, with his firing came a massive $17.1 million buyout, which Orgeron gladly took on his way out the door with a national title in his back pocket.
Now, he returns to the building as the “special assistant to recruiting and defense” for Kiffin, which will also allow him hit the road recruiting thanks to a rule passed by the NCAA in recent years.
“I’m excited to bring Coach Orgeron back to LSU,” Kiffin said. “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.”
How will the former LSU coach adjust to the new era in college athletics, with money legally being paid to players?
“It’s a minor adjustment. Back then, we used to walk through the back door with the cash, now we just gotta walk through the front door with the cash. A joke, obviously,” Orgeron said while laughing to Bussin’ With The Boys.
LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron reacts before a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Nov. 27, 2021. (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
Getting the band back together in Baton Rouge
Coach O and Lane are obviously no strangers, as Kiffin lured him away from the NFL when he accepted the Tennessee job in 2009. After Kiffin accepted the USC job just one year following his arrival in Knoxville, Orgeron followed him to Los Angeles, where he once again coached on the defensive side of the ball.
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“I was like head coach No. 2 on the staff. The reason I went back with him, because he and I were tight at USC, Ed Orgeron told ‘Bussin’ With The Boys last year. “He was a young coach, but man, a great, great recruiter, great evaluator. Had a bright future ahead. I went to go work with his daddy, Monte Kiffin. That’s the reason I went to Tennessee.
“Then the USC job comes open. Look, nothing wrong with Tennessee, but look, USC we had been there and Tennessee’s just a little bit different. I believe if we had stayed at Tennessee, we would have won the SEC East and we would have played in the championship for years to come. We were doing a tremendous job there, tremendous job recruiting.”
Ed Orgeron, assistant head coach, and Monte Kiffin, defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Volunteers, watch the game against the UCLA Bruins at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 12, 2009. UCLA defeated Tennessee 19-15. (Joe Murphy/Getty Images)
Now, years later, and after coaching against each other in 2020 while both were head coaches at Ole Miss and LSU, the pair will reunite in what should make for some interesting times on the Tigers campus.
In addition to Orgeron, it was former colleague Tee Martin who accepted a position on Lane Kiffin’s staff at LSU, which now looks like one big reunion from their USC days.
Obviously this is going to create a stir, and there will be a number of callbacks to their days together coaching at Tennessee and USC, where drama seemed to follow the pair.
Lane Kiffin speaks during his introductory press conference as head coach of the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., on Dec. 1, 2025. (Gus Stark/LSU/University Images)
But, it’s hard to downplay what Orgeron can do along the recruiting trail, and on the defensive side of the ball, with his years of experience.
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Just when you thought the Kiffin experience couldn’t get any crazier along the Bayou, he goes out and hires one of the most polarizing figures in college football history.
This will be one entertaining tenure in Baton Rouge for Lane Kiffin, no matter how this chapter ends.
