Orgeron mum on advice for Tennessee’s interim head coach

Published 7:00 pm Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Ed Orgeron has been there, done that.

Twice, in fact.

But while he once earned the title “America’s Interim Coach,” it isn’t much help for him and the LSU team trying to figure out what to expect from Tennessee this week after Butch Jones was fired as head coach on Sunday.

Tennessee’ interim head coach is Brady Hoke, who was the Vols’ defensive line coach until Sunday, but has also been a head coach at Michigan, San Diego State and Ball State.

“I don’t understand what happened,” Orgeron said of the firing, which had long been rumored. “I don’t pay much attention to it.”

Orgeron took over the final eight games last year at LSU when Les Miles was fired, a role he also performed at Southern Cal in 2013 for the final eight games when Lane Kiffin was fired.

Under Jones, Tennessee (4-6) was  winless is six SEC games.

Under Hoke? Who knows? 

“We will tweak some things,” Hoke said at his own press luncheon Monday. “Just because of the comfort level I have and how I would like to run a program.”

He did not, of course, elaborate, and will have closed practice all this week.

Experience tells Orgeron there’s no time to reinvent the wheel in that situation, even though LSU was noticeably more open on offense after he took over after four games last year.

“Can’t change much,” he said Monday. “I’ve been there. Obviously they’re going to tweak some things. He’s going to put his spin on it. I know he’s going to do a good job.”

Otherwise, Orgeron said, it shouldn’t be much different than any week preparing for an SEC opponent.

“Every game you’ve got new plays, new formations,” he said. “We’re just going to have to adjust. We’re not going to spend all week trying to figure it out. Nothing like that. 

“The things that they tweak, we’re going to have to make adjustments on the sideline.”

Hoke has never dealt with the “interim” tag before, but two of his assistants have — offensive coordinator Larry Scott and quarterbacks coach Mike Canales

Orgeron didn’t have much advice.

He does know that most interim coaches are there for a reason. Tennessee’s latest adventure was a 50-17 loss to Missouri on Saturday night.

“When teams aren’t playing well, you’ve got to get to play as a team. You’ve got to control the things inside that you can control. I think that’s the biggest thing.”

The first thing Orgeron did at South Cal was to get a thick rope and get all the players on the same side of it to pull in the same direction.

“One thing to say you’re going to do it, but when you get it, you have to do it.”

Orgeron went 6-2 in both of his interim stints.

His job now is to make sure Hoke at least starts off 0-1.

“I know Brady Hoke as a coach,” Orgeron said. “I have a lot of respect for him. I know he’ll have his team ready to go. But it’s not going to be about them. It’s going to be about us and how we prepare this week.”