Ed Orgeron

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Ed Orgeron
Image:Ed Orgeron-Ole Miss.jpg
Title	Head Coach
College	Mississippi
Sport	Football
Team Record	7-16
Born	July 27, 1961
Career Highlights
Overall	7-16
Coaching Stats
College Football DataWarehouse
School as a player
1981-84	Northwestern (La.) State
Position	Defensive lineman
Coaching positions
2005-Present	Ole Miss

Ed Orgeron (born July 27, 1961) is the head football coach at the University of Mississippi. He was named the 35th head football coach at Mississippi on December 16, 2004.

Contents 1 Coaching History 2 Mississippi Years 2.1 Record 3 Controversy 4 Head Coaching Record 5 Trivia 6 External links

[edit] Coaching History

Orgeron returned to the college ranks in 1994 at Nicholls State University before moving to Syracuse University in 1995,[1] where he met his wife Kelly in 1996.[2]

Before being hired by Ole Miss, he was the defensive line coach and assistant head coach for the University of Southern California (USC) where played a key role in Pete Carroll's Trojans winning the national championship in 2004. He joined the USC staff in January of 1998, took on the added responsibility of recruiting coordinator for the Trojans in 2001, and was then named assistant head coach in 2003.

In previous years, Orgeron was an assistant at the University of Miami, where he coached eight All-Americans, including NFL first rounders Cortez Kennedy, Russell Maryland and Warren Sapp. During his tenure at Miami, the Hurricanes won the national championship twice (1989 and 1991).

Orgeron was the National Recruiter of the Year in 2004, which prompted the University of Mississippi to hire Coach Orgeron after the school's firing of David Cutcliffe.

[edit] Mississippi Years

Entering the 2005 season, Orgeron had hoped to run a USC-style offense, but was met with limited success. Mississippi's offense finished the season ranked 111th out of 117 Division I-A teams in total offense, 115th in scoring and 116th in rushing. Though Orgeron's defensive experience, along with rising star LB Patrick Willis, helped the Rebel defense in 2005, the offense always seemed to produce more interceptions than touchdowns. As a result, the 2005 Ole Miss football team struggled and finished the season with a record of three wins and eight losses, the worst for the Rebels since 1987.

In response to the results of his first season, Orgeron fired offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone[3], replacing him with former University of Miami offensive coordinator Dan Werner.[4]. Also, Orgeron hired Art Kehoe, the longtime offensive line coach from the University of Miami. Werner and Kehoe had just been fired from Miami. In 2006 with the new offensive coordinator and offensive line coaches, Ole Miss finished with the #108 scoring offense, the #111 total offense, and #112 passing offensein the NCAA.

Orgeron's second recruiting class in February of 2006 was successful by acquiring the written pledges of a national Top 15 signing class for the Mississippi football program.[5] He followed that with the 32nd ranked recruiting classin February 2007.

[edit] Record

Responses to Orgeron's .304 overall and .188 SEC record have varied. He only has one win against teams with a winning record (Memphis, 7-5 in 2005), lowest among active SEC coaches. Publically he has enjoyed the support of Mississippi's chancellor Robert Khayat and other administrators with oversight of the football program. In an November 2006 article in Clarion Ledger, Khayat said of Orgeron and of the poor record since he was hired (7-14 when that interview was conducted), "I think Coach Orgeron inherited a very difficult situation. ... I am 100 percent behind him, and I think that people ought to understand that he has a big challenge."

[edit] Controversy

In 1991, while an assistant at Miami, a "permanent injunction of protection" was granted to a woman by a Dade County court against Orgeron prohibiting "any act of domestic violence." Orgeron was ordered into a 26-week domestic violence counseling program. Subsequently, a "highly intoxicated" Orgeron was arrested in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana bar fight in 1992 and charged with felony second-degree battery among other charges. The charges were eventually dropped but Orgeron was placed on probation by the Miami athletic department. [6]

Calling those moments of his life "shattering," Ed Orgeron returned home to his family in Larose, LA, to get his life back in order. Said Orgeron of the troubled period, "I stayed home with my parents and my younger brother (Steven), and got back to my roots and let everything pan out like it should."[7] [8]

Controversy arose for Mississippi and Orgeron after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. One of the most affected institutions was Tulane University. After Tulane football players were displaced by Katrina, Athletic Director for Mississippi, Pete Boone, suggested that Orgeron contact Tulane over the future of their football program and the possibility of player transfer.

Tulane head coach Chris Scelfo was less than pleased with the idea. Scelfo attacked Orgeron after the incident, called those coaches or administrators connected to the Tulane controversy "lower than dirt" and later stated that "there's people in our business who do not belong in our business." The Southeastern Conference investigated the alleged infractions but found that no league or NCAA rules were violated and exonerated Mississippi and Coach Orgeron.[9]

New published reports show that Orgeron or his coaches have directed high school recruits who have had difficulty getting good enough grades to qualify to play college football to take online courses provided by Brigham Young University. These courses could be completed in as little as a week and in some cases just hours, and could be used to replace a failing grade earned in a normal school full-semester class. Many recruits took more than one BYU online class, and one recruit took up to 14 courses, and each was to take the place of a class failed in the normal school environment. Some of those students taking the BYU courses to replace regular courses did qualify and are now playing for Ole Miss. As of right now, the BYU online classes are within the rules of the NCAA, but they are being investigated and may soon be disallowed.[10]

[edit] Head Coaching Record

School	Season (Bowl game)	Wins	Losses	Average
Mississippi	2005	3	8	.273
Mississippi	2006	4	8	.333
Total	2 years	7	16	.304

[edit] Trivia

• He attended South Lafourche High School in Galliano, LA with former New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Bobby Hebert.

[edit] External links

• Official Ole Miss bio

Preceded by David Cutcliffe

Ole Miss Head Football Coach 2005–present

Succeeded by Current

Current Head Football Coaches of the Southeastern Conference
Rich Brooks (Kentucky) | Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State) | Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee) | Bobby Johnson (Vanderbilt) | Urban Meyer (Florida) | Les Miles (LSU) | Houston Nutt (Arkansas) | Ed Orgeron (Ole Miss) | Mark Richt (Georgia) | Nick Saban (Alabama) | Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) | Tommy Tuberville (Auburn) |