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As buyout lives go, Ed Orgeron is probably living the best one imaginable. On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, he swings his phone toward his balcony on the 37th floor of a South Beach high-rise to show off a breathtaking view that might get even more breathtaking depending on which neighbors are home at a given moment.



“They say J Lo lives right over there,” he says, pointing across the street. 



But Coach O’s lease is up in December, and he intends to leave that view behind. He plans to be back in college football by then. The man who led LSU to the 2019 national title and then got a $17 million buyout when he was fired less than two years later wants to get back on the grass.



But unlike other former head coaches trying to return, Orgeron doesn’t insist on having the biggest office. He intends to be picky about his next destination, but he’s not limiting his search only to schools looking for a head coach.



“I want a fit. I’m not going to take just anything, and not everybody’s going to take me,” Orgeron says. “It may be a head coach job. It may be a defensive line job with someone that I believe can win a championship.”



That may feel like a record-scratch moment, but not to anyone who knows Orgeron. He did this after his first foray as a head coach (at Ole Miss from 2005-07) ended badly. And he’d do it again, even though he’s done something only three active college head coaches (Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day) have done.



Orgeron’s happy place is on the field teaching rip and swim moves, followed closely by in the living room — or mom’s kitchen — closing an elite recruit. He’s learned how much he misses it these past few years. His sons Cody and Parker are on Mario Cristobal’s staff at Miami, and the elder Orgeron is a regular at the Hurricanes’ facility. He’s visited Notre Dame and he’s visited his friend Mickey Joseph’s Grambling team. Every time he touched a practice field, he felt the pull. Yes, he’d love to be a head coach again. But if he’s the defensive line coach/ace recruiter for a team that can make the College Football Playoff, he’ll feel right at home. 



“Being the d-line coach at Miami, being the d-line coach at LSU and USC, I loved it,” Orgeron says.



It’s easy to understand why. He was Jimmy Johnson and Craig Erickson’s defensive line coach at Miami. He was Pete Carroll’s defensive line coach at USC. Being LSU’s defensive line coach under Les Miles opened the door to Orgeron becoming LSU’s head coach and assembling one of the greatest teams that ever played. All those tenures, as Orgeron mentioned, included national titles, and that’s no accident.



“If I interview, I want them to want me as much as I want them,” Orgeron says. “I’m a championship coach, and I’m going to bring a winning program to their university.”



Or he could enhance a program that’s already winning. Let’s say 73-year-old Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson decided to retire this winter after an illustrious career. It would be unfair, but the Buckeyes could replace one all-timer with another. Perhaps the new coach at Penn State or Florida wants to infuse the program with talent while also having a sounding board who understands how to win a national title. Orgeron could play those roles.



I’ve always thought Orgeron’s business model going forward should be this: He waits it out in South Beach every offseason. Then, when a team fires its coach in September or early October, they call Orgeron to finish the season as the interim head coach. He brings his “One heartbeat” drum and finds a way to make the players love football again. The team wins some games it shouldn’t have — just as Orgeron’s USC and LSU teams did when he was the interim — and Oregon collects several million dollars and waits for another AD to call him in from the bullpen next season. 



Orgeron is the greatest interim coach in college football history. Why not make it a second career? 



“I’m for it, man,” Orgeron says. “Talk to my agent, Derek.”



Orgeron’s agent, Derek Ponamsky, is not as enthusiastic about that plan. That’s probably because Ponamsky, who served as Orgeron’s right hand at LSU, believes Coach O has a lot more wins in him at a single place that chooses to believe in him.



The end at LSU was rough, but Orgeron went 51-20 in six seasons. Maybe you believe he caught lightning in a bottle in 2019, but most coaches can’t catch that kind of lightning, and if they could, they don’t know how to open the bottle. Orgeron has and can provide that capability as a consigliere to a head coach who wants to win his first national title.



Coach O has the buyout life the rest of us dream of. He wants to be back on the field.



“I love ball,” he says.



And he believes he’s got plenty of years left to coach.



“I’m young, man,” he says. “I’m 64 years young.”

Ed Orgeron

On3 Football

Ed Orgeron wants to be your head coach — or even your defensive line coach

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