Still Got It
Ed Orgeron discussing his $17-million buyout at LSU might be the soundbite of the week
Remember Ed Orgeron? Coach O? The ramblin’, blamblin’, stamblin’ National Championship-winning ball coach at LSU was axed last October 18 after months of lousy results and a host of brewing scandals, including bringing his girlfriend(s) to practice and once hitting on a high-ranking LSU Official’s pregnant wife at a gas station.
We haven’t heard much of Orgeron’s glorious cajun rabble since then. He hasn’t landed at some Sun Belt school to rehabilitate his career or started showing up on ESPN. He’s mostly kept his head down, but on Tuesday he popped by the Little Rock Touchdown Club to talk about what happened in Baton Rouge and what comes next, dropping one of the all-time great Coach O quotes in the process. The whole thing is worth a listen, but the soundbite in question begins around the 36-second mark.
Classic Coach O. If you can’t watch with volume, the story goes like this. LSU sat Orgeron down after a string of ugly performances to start 2021. They told him he had $17 million remaining on his contract and that they would give him every last penny if we walked away quietly. Orgeron’s response? “What time do you want me to leave and what door you want me out of, brother?!”
This goes a long way in explaining why we haven’t heard much from Coach O in the last 12 months (apart from a few leathery Cabo sightings). The man is living the dream and he’s got the money to keep on living it for a long, long time. He doesn’t need to slog through eight-win rebuilding seasons at Louisiana-Monroe. He doesn’t need to wake up at 4 a.m. to debate LeBron vs. Jordan on ‘Get Up.’ He just gets to do whatever he wants to do and be rich doing it. Good work if you can get it ...