Ed Orgeron returning to LSU as assistant on Lane Kiffin’s staff

LSU has finalized a deal to add Ed Orgeron to its football coaching staff, the school announced Wednesday night.

Orgeron is the former head coach at LSU, which he led to the 2019 national title.

He reunites with LSU coach Lane Kiffin, Orgeron’s longtime friend and colleague with whom he previously worked at USC and Tennessee. They last collaborated at USC in 2013.

Orgeron’s role will officially be special assistant to recruiting and defense for the Tigers.

Along with serving as the head coach at Ole Miss and LSU and as the interim coach at USC, Orgeron crafted a reputation as one of the country’s top recruiters and defensive line coaches.

Recent changes in NCAA recruiting rules will allow Orgeron to go out on the road to recruit for the Tigers, selling two things he knows intimately well: LSU and Kiffin. The move will certainly raise eyebrows in the SEC, as Kiffin brought in college football’s No. 1 class of recruits and transfers for his first year, per ESPN’s rankings.

The relationship between Kiffin and Orgeron goes back a quarter century, as they first served on a staff together in 2001 under Pete Carroll at USC. Orgeron is largely credited with being the recruiting engine during that gilded USC era, and his exploits in recruiting at Ole Miss were chronicled in the book “Meat Market.”

Ed Orgeron is returning to LSU and will serve as the special assistant to recruiting and defense for the Tigers pic.twitter.com/dfmnEeWpsW

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) May 21, 2026

Orgeron took over as LSU’s interim coach in 2016 and held the full-time job through 2021, when the school fired him two years after winning the national championship. Over those six seasons, he led the Tigers to a 51-20 record.

The 2019 title team went 15-0. It is regarded as one of the best college football teams of all time, led by quarterback Joe Burrow and a slew of future NFL stars.

Orgeron went 10-25 in his three seasons as the coach at Ole Miss, but he recruited a strong enough roster that coach Houston Nutt went 9-4 in the subsequent two years after Orgeron was fired in 2007.

Orgeron is a native of Larose, Louisiana, and knows the state well from stints at Northwestern State, McNeese, Nicholls State and even a season coaching the defensive line for the New Orleans Saints. He was LSU’s D-line coach before taking over as interim coach in 2016.