Former LSU Tigers head football coach Ed Orgeron is once again in the news. And guess what? It’s for the same kinds of questionable behavior that led to him getting the ax in Baton Rouge.
Less than three years ago Orgeron sat atop the college football world as the charismatic and spirited coach led the “Bayou Bengals” to their first national championship since 2007. Starting quarterback Joe Burrow also won the Heisman Trophy, passing for 5,671 yards, 60 touchdowns and just six interceptions. His 10-1 touchdown to interception ratio is an NCAA record.
Orgeron was the guy who hired the young, innovative offensive savant in Joe Brady to lead the record-breaking offense. But that all came crashing down pretty swiftly, as key pieces of that team went to the NFL and key assistants took other jobs.
Orgeron’s personal life playing out in the media didn’t help matters either. There was the infamous picture of him in bed with a much younger woman that went viral. His reportedly ignoring a sexual assault claim against one of his players from 2017 didn’t sit well with LSU’s administration.
Chasing Women, Not Wins? | Ed Orgeron Out As LSU Head Coach At End Of 2021 Season
Since the divorce from his longtime wife in 2021, Orgeron has been sowing his oats of sorts. His latest excursion has seen him showing up to a Louisiana Ragin Cajuns game over the weekend with a much younger woman. He definitely has the money to afford her company, as he was awarded $17M from LSU to take a hike.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) September 10, 2022
The Love Of Women Played A Role In Orgeron’s Demise
The Athletic recently reported that Orgeron’s reckless off-the-field behavior played a huge role in his being dismissed. The former Ole Miss and USC interim coach just let himself go following the championship season and subsequent divorce. The Athletic quoted an unnamed insider who described how it all fell apart for Orgeron:
“He lost track of who he was and what made him good from the national championship to now. There were coordinator hires of coaches that Orgeron admits to not fully interviewing and embarrassing interactions with fans. There were viral photos of him in bed with women.
Then, at his most powerful — and his most wealthy — Orgeron was single again. He had just signed a six-year, $42 million extension and was a Louisiana hero. And he was going to enjoy it. Something that had priority in his life that didn’t have a priority before was talking to (women). That just became too high on the totem pole.”
The source also told The Athletic this:
“To people and sources inside the program, there was no moral issue with Orgeron enjoying his life, but it became noticeable that football wasn’t his entire focus like it had been in years past, and it became a distraction. There was the famous 2020 photos of him in bed with a woman, among other photos made public. Multiple sources said he brought the women around the LSU football operations building.”
So the source is saying that Coach O was basically wildin’ out. That divorce seemed to have turned over a new leaf for Orgeron and not in a good way.
Tigers Still Gave Orgeron $17 Million To Vanish
While we hadn’t heard much about how things transpired with Orgeron’s firing in 2021, the always engaging Coach O recently gave a detailed version of how his firing went down.
Ed Orgeron: "They said, 'Coach, you've got $17.1 million on your contract. We're gonna give it to you.'
"I said, 'What time do you want me to leave and what door do you want me out of, brother?'" https://t.co/zLzqUzcJRt
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) September 6, 2022
Things weren’t going well, and the time had come for a change. Orgeron even admits it was a no-brainer, and he wasn’t really surprised by the ending. But he was surprised by was the amount of money the team gave him to leave.
“I said, what time do you want me to leave, and what door do you want me out of, brother?”
Coach O was living it up before he was fired but was forced to use more discretion than he wanted too. With his newfound freedom and playboy lifestyle, he’s living it up, free from criticism.
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