Ed Orgeron

Ed Orgeron (born July 27, 1961) is an American football coach who is currently serving as the defensive line coach/recruiting coordinator for the USC Trojans. Orgeron previously served as the head football coach of the Ole Miss Rebels from 2005 to 2007. Prior to that, Orgeron was one of the highest paid assistant coaches in college football, with an annual salary of $650,000.

Playing career
Orgeron attended South Lafourche High School in Galliano, Louisiana 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. He is of Cajun descent.

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

Before being hired by Mississippi, he was the defensive line coach and assistant head coach for the University of Southern California (USC) where he played a key role in Pete Carroll's Trojans winning the Rose Bowl and Associated Press National Championship in 2003 and the Bowl Championship Series National Championship in 2004. He joined the USC staff in January 1998 under the coaching regime of Paul Hackett, and was retained by Carroll when Hackett was fired in 2000. Under Carroll, Orgeron 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, also the same year he was hired at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) after the school's firing of David Cutcliffe.

Mississippi years
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 returning LB Patrick Willis, helped the Rebel defense in 2005, the offense always seemed to produce more interceptions than touchdowns. As a result, the 2005 Mississippi 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, replacing him with former University of Miami offensive coordinator Dan Werner. 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, Mississippi finished ranked #108 in scoring offense, #111 in total offense and #112 in passing offense. Orgeron's second recruiting class in February 2006 was successful by acquiring the written pledges of a national Top 15 signing class for the Mississippi football program. He followed that with the 32nd ranked recruiting class in February 2007.

Record
At Ole Miss, Orgeron recorded only 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. Until the 2007 season, he enjoyed the public 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, Mississippi finished the season 0-8 in the conference and 3-9 overall. It was Ole Miss's first winless campaign in the SEC since 1982.

On November 24, 2007, after blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead to in-state rival Mississippi State in the season's last game, Orgeron was fired as head football coach of Mississippi. He was replaced by former Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt who had resigned from Arkansas three days after Orgeron was fired.

New Orleans Saints, Tennessee, and USC
On January 23, 2008 it was announced that Orgeron had been hired as the Saints new defensive line coach.

On December 31, 2008, Orgeron accepted a position with the University of Tennessee Volunteers football program under new head coach Lane Kiffin. In his role with the program, he was the associate head coach, the recruiting coordinator and the defensive line coach. Orgeron left Tennessee to return to USC with Kiffin on January 12, 2010.

In media
Orgeron appears as himself in The Blind Side as Mississippi's head coach, and takes Mike out to dinner.