LSU Football: Ed Orgeron’s 5 most pivotal moments in Baton Rouge

Ed Orgeron becomes LSU’s permanent head coach

When LSU moved on from Les Miles in 2016, Orgeron was the obvious choice to be the interim head coach.

Orgeron was the head coach at Ole Miss for three seasons and he went 6-2 as USC’s interim head coach in 2013. It was a no brainer.

But giving the Coach O the full-time gig? That wasn’t necessarily in the cards.

There was plenty of speculation that then Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who served as LSU’s offensive coordinator from 2000-06, would be the guy for the Tigers.

Tom Herman, who was then the head coach at Houston, was another name that seemed to have plenty of steam in the coaching search.

But LSU athletic director Joe Alleva, who retired in early 2019, never seriously considered Fisher.

When Herman landed with Texas, it made Orgeron the clear choice for the job (it helped that LSU’s players desperately wanted Orgeron to get the job).

Coach O wasn’t overly confident he’d get the job, perhaps jaded by his experience at USC, but LSU offered him the gig and he famously accepted without even discussing how much he would get paid.