Brady Quinn defends Ed Orgeron, compares to Nick Saban's record at LSU

Ed Orgeron and LSU have reached a separation agreement, according to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellinger, and the head coach will not return to LSU for the 2022 season.

Orgeron’s career at LSU will come to a close after this season, but he will finish the 2021 campaign before he is formally dismissed. 

FOX Sports analyst Brady Quinn, however, believes that LSU has it wrong. Not only did he take to Twitter to defend Orgeron, but he went so far as to compare Orgeron’s tenure at LSU to Nick Saban’s.

“Just absurd,” he said of the decision on Twitter. “You’ll have a hard time finding a coach to replicate his performance and who cares more about LSU football than Ed Orgeron. Oh and I’ll just leave this here: Nick Saban at LSU 48-16.”

Orgeron boasts a 46-17 record in six seasons at the helm of LSU, and he won a national championship in 2019 — a season in which the Tigers finished 15-0 and put together arguably the greatest season in college football history. 21 months later, the two have agreed to part ways. Since the national championship victory over Clemson, Orgeron’s 9-8 record hardly puts him over .500.

Negotiations between Orgeron and LSU began last week, before the Tigers pulled off an unexpected, 49-42 upset over the No. 20 Florida Gators on Saturday.

“A strained relationship between coach and administration — rooted in team management & public/private behavior — has warped into an untenable situation, distrust & outbursts,” Dellinger said on Twitter.

After going just 5-5 in the COVID-abbreviated 2020 season, Orgeron was named in a Title IX lawsuit about allegedly mishandling a rape allegation, igniting conflict off the field at LSU. An amended lawsuit named Orgeron as a defendant in the case, and it accused Orgeron of not reporting the alleged rape of a former student, despite his knowledge of the situation.

“It’s one of those things where no one wanted to be there anymore,” Yahoo! Sports’ Pete Thamel tweeted. “The players didn’t want to play for him, the coaches didn’t want to coach for him.”

LSU is expected to pay Orgeron the entirety of his buyout clause, according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, which is over $17 million.

Orgeron arrived at LSU in 2015, serving first as the defensive line coach. After the university fired then-head coach Les Miles, Orgeron was named the Tigers’ interim head coach and finished out the season with a 6-2 record. LSU then removed the interim tag from title in November of 2016, officially naming Orgeron the 32nd full-time head coach.

Orgeron finished the 2016 season with a Citrus Bowl victory, and in 2017, LSU finished with a 9-4 record and lost in the Citrus Bowl. The Tigers showed signs of improvement in 2018, finishing with a 10-3 record and a Fiesta Bowl victory, but his 2019 national championship campaign saw LSU reach new heights. Led by quarterback Joe Burrow, who won the Heisman Trophy, LSU had its fourth undefeated regular season since the program’s inception in 1893, then made quick work of the College Football Playoff field.