Ed Orgeron may no longer be on the LSU Tigers’ sideline, but Coach O still has plenty of love for the program.
Speaking at the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Tuesday, Orgeron spoke on his time, as well as his exit, from LSU.
I’m so grateful of my time for LSU. That was my opportunity. Coaches gotta shelf… some coaches got 50 years, some coaches got 12. Mine was six. Good. I gotta tell ya… we had a meeting. Said, ‘Coach, things are not going well.’ ‘No s—, you could say that brother.’ And they were good. Scott Woodward is a friend of mine, today. Really, really have a lot of respect for the way they handled me.
Coach O and LSU agreed to part ways just two years after the Tigers’ magical 2019 season, following a 5-5 mark in 2020 and a 4-3 start last year.
Orgeron finished out the season, but decided that he wanted to take some time away from football after 37 years of coaching. It also didn’t hurt that LSU paid him the remainder of his contract when they let him go:
‘Coach, you’ve got $17.1 million on your contract. We’re gonna give it to ya.’ I said, ‘What time do you want me to leave and what door do you want me out of brother?’
LSU hired Brian Kelly to be its head coach November of 2021.