Born of Cajun descent in Larose, Louisiana, one would be hard pressed to find a football coach with a better background in the pelican state to be the head football coach at LSU than Ed Orgeron. But once upon a time, coach Bear Bryant tried to recruit Orgeron to come play at Alabama.

Orgeron explained in his press conference Monday that the legendary coach wanted to come to his house for a visit, but his father said no.

“Bear was going to come to my house. My daddy said, ‘nope,'” the LSU coach said with a laugh.

“That’s the way it should be. I wish it was like that today.”

Watch Orgeron retell the story below:

Orgeron went on to play at LSU in 1979, but he left the program after one season to transfer to Northwestern State. He began his coaching career at his alma mater in 1984 and eventually returned to LSU as its defensive line coach in 2015.

In addition to playing college football in Louisiana, Orgeron has spent several coaching stints at various schools in his home state, but he’s never served on a football staff for a school in Alabama.