Could Florida be in Ed Orgeron's future? It makes a lot of sense
Once the 2021 season ends, so will Ed Orgeron’s time at LSU. The 60-year-old coach is being removed after 5-plus seasons in the Bayou, but there’s no reason to think Orgeron won’t continue to coach and he should have several options.
Sports writer Corey Long believes that Orgeron will want to go back to his roots of coaching the defensive line. Orgeron can’t become a head coach in the SEC for 18 months due to the terms of his separation agreement, but there’s nothing that would stop him from taking a job on a staff at an SEC program.
“I think he wants to go back to coaching d-line,” Long said. “He’s a tremendous d-line coach and a tremendous recruiter. He recruits great players. That’s what he does.”
Long believes like there’s one SEC program in particular that could use Orgeron’s talent for coaching defensive lines and recruiting top talent.
“If Dan Mullen could handle his personality, Florida really needs a recruiting ace,” Long added. “They need a guy that can (narrow) the recruiting gap between them and Georgia, Alabama, LSU … basically the other top 5 SEC teams. I think (Orgeron) could be that guy.”
Talent scout Charles Fishbein, the co-host of the Fish Cast, agreed and said that if Florida wants to really compete at the top of the conference, the Gators need better recruiters.
“You’re right, they need an ace recruiter,” Fishbein said. “That’s just reality. Georgia is recruiting at an elite level. It makes it difficult when you look across the field every year and you’ve got the less talented roster and you have to out-coach (Georgia) every year.
“(Mullen) needs recruiters. “Every coach has blind spots. He has coached with the mentality of ‘I’m going to out-scheme guys on gameday,’ and that’s fine. That gets you to 9, maybe 10 wins. But to get to 12 wins, you need better players. Florida is not at Alabama’s and Georgia’s level.”
Orgeron had been a defensive line coach at Miami, Syracuse, USC, Tennessee, LSU and the New Orleans Saints in his 37-year career. During that time, he has been part of 4 national championship coaching staffs as an assistant.
