Going back

Published 7:00 pm Thursday, November 14, 2019

Orgeron recalls growing pains at Ole Miss

LSU head coach Ed Orgeron celebrates with running back Derrius Guice (5) following their 40-24 win over Mississippi in an NCAA college football game in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Maybe this is the last LSU trip to Oxford where head coach Ed Orgeron will have to be answering the “Ole Miss” questions.

Perhaps it will go back to being just another chapter in a longstanding and interesting rivalry for both schools.

But the questions came up again this week: What will it be like returning to the campus where he got his first head coaching job in 2005 for a three-year stint?

This is the second time he’s done it in purple and gold. The first, a 40-24 LSU victory, was most noteworthy for him making an Oxford Chevron filling station famous for its chicken-on-a-stick when remembering a Friday ritual he went through at his old haunts.

He may have raised some ire when, offhandedly, he mentioned that Ole Miss was a good “stepping stone” to eventually get his dream job in his home state with LSU.

But understand, this is not anything like Nick Saban returning to LSU every other year with Alabama.

Orgeron didn’t abandon Ole Miss. He was summarily fired after his third season. And few, if any, of the Rebels’ feelings were hurt when Orgeron departed, not after a disastrous, if colorful, run where he went 10-27, 3-15 in SEC games.

It was the stuff of legend — ripping his shirt off in front of terrified freshmen, for one, destroying inanimate objects for another.

But mostly thinking he could micro-manage every aspect of a big-time program.

In fairness, it should be noted that Orgeron did recruit well enough in Oxford — always his strong point — so that his successor, Houston Nutt, took those players to back-to-back Cotton Bowl wins, a high-water mark for Ole Miss’ recent history.

If anything, Ole Miss fans are probably just shocked that he’s bringing the No. 1 team in the nation with him.

Those were interesting times in Oxford for a displaced Cajun.

“I do believe I grew as a coach through adversity,” he said.

Current Ole Miss coach Matt Luke was on his staff with the Rebels.

After the firing, Orgeron went into coaching rehab, first with the New Orleans Saints, then Tennessee, finally reuniting with his mentor Pete Carroll at Southern Cal, where he had an interim head job after Lane Kiffin was fired.

He was at LSU, at the right place at the right time, when Les Miles was fired, and turned that interim opportunity into his full-time dream job.

He readily admits it couldn’t have worked out any better.

“I changed some things and some approaches that I had to see if they’d work,” Orgeron said. “I learned my strengths and weaknesses as a head coach. I learned how to hire guys that are good at what I’m not good at.”

Carroll told him not to read the negative press clippings. Another coach told him, “You’re not going to figure out what kind of coach you are until you’re 50, 51.

“I didn’t want to believe that. But it takes some time, especially when you’re getting your butt beat.”

He was 55 when he got the second chance of a lifetime.

It’s taken some trial and error at LSU as well, mainly to get the right coaching staff, then, this year, to get the right offense.

“There’s a lot of good things that have happened to us,” he said.

But he’s not gloating on the way back to Oxford, even while admitting he doesn’t have particularly happy memories of the quaint college town.

“Ole Miss was a great opportunity for me as a young coach — I wasn’t that young, but it was my first (head coaching) job. It was in the SEC. I learned a lot of things. I learned how to do things, I learned how not to do things.

“I don’t like the results, but you know what? It prepared me for down the road.

“I finally got the coaching staff that I really believed in and obviously I have great talent. But I’m very appreciative of my time in Oxford.”

Especially that Chevron station, where, where Phyllis is still dishing out that chicken-on-a-stick.

“I bet she’s happy for me,” Orgeron said.