Ed Orgeron

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Ed Orgeron (born July 27, 1961) is an American football coach who was most recently the head coach at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), and is currently the defensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints . He was named the 35th head football coach at Ole Miss on December 16, 2004. On November 24, 2007, he was fired after failing to produce a winning record in three seasons and having not won any Southeastern Conference games in 2007.

[edit] Playing history

He attended South Lafourche High School in Galliano, LA with former Michigan Panthers, New Orleans Saints, and Atlanta Falcons quarterback Bobby Hebert. Orgeron and Hebert played on the school's Class 4A state championship team in 1977. Orgeron then signed to play college ball at Louisiana State University, but he transferred to Northwestern State University after one practice.

[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 co-national championship in 2003 and the outright 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 him after the school's firing of David Cutcliffe.

[edit] Ole Miss years

Ed Orgeron walks the sidelines during the LSU @ Ole Miss game on November 17, 2007. It was his last home game as Ole Miss' Head Coach.

Entering the 2005 season, Orgeron had hoped to run a USC-style offense, but was met with limited success. Mississippi's (Ole Miss') 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 ranked #108 in scoring offense, #111 in total offense and #112 in passing offense.^[5]

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 Ole Miss football program.^[6] He followed that with the 32nd ranked recruiting class in February 2007^[7].

[edit] Record

Responses to Orgeron's overall and SEC record have varied. He has two wins against teams with a winning record (The 2005 and 2007 Memphis teams which both finished at 7-5), lowest among then-active SEC coaches. Publicly he has enjoyed the support of The University of Mississippi's chancellor Robert Khayat and other administrators with oversight of the football program, including Athletic Director Pete Boone. In a November 2006 article in The 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."

In 2007, web sites such as FireCoachO.com and FireCoachO.net went live as fans of Ole Miss football became disgusted with the lack of wins on behalf of Orgeron.

For the first time in 25 years, Ole Miss - under Orgeron - went winless in SEC play, ending the 2007 season at 0-8 (3-9 overall). The last time this happened was in 1982.

On November 24, 2007, after losing to rival Mississippi State, Orgeron was fired as head football coach of Ole Miss and replaced by former Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt who resigned from Arkansas 3 days after Orgeron was fired.

[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.^[8]

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."^[9][10]

Controversy arose for Ole Miss 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 Ole Miss and Coach Orgeron.^[11]

In 2007, 20 Ole Miss football players were placed on indefinite probation by the University for having stolen pillows and clock radios from hotels in which the team had stayed. All 20 players paid for the stolen items and therefore no NCAA rules were broken, according to the NCAA. Coach Orgeron stated that the incident would be dealt with internally and that no one would miss the season finale against arch-rival Mississippi State, because none of the 20 players had been a discipline problem before. For the same reason, that being no previous discipline issues, the school refused to release the names of the players.^[12]

[edit] New Orleans Saints

On January 23, 2008 it was announced that Orgeron had been hired as the Saints new defensive line coach.^[13]

[edit] Head Coaching Record

[edit] External links

• Official Ole Miss bio

[edit] References