BATON ROUGE, La. – A little more than a year ago, when Les Miles made it official and introduced Ed Orgeron as LSU’s new defensive line coach, a major underlying theme was “coming home.”
Orgeron is a proud son of Louisiana, born and bred in Larose and Galliano, where life is different than most places on Earth. The energetic and personable Orgeron has made himself fit in every job he has filled in one way or another, but when Miles called, it was different. The job fit Orgeron, 54, like a Cajun glove. Now the fit is even better.
Orgeron will be named LSU’s recruiting coordinator once a revamped contract is improved and that completes a circle that makes his spot with the Tigers even more ideal.
You add up the different elements and it’s like that sensation you get when all the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed on the final term paper of your senior year and you hit the print button. (I know I’m getting old, but they do still make college kids write papers, right?)
This is everything that’s right for Orgeron.
- Coach defensive line for one of the top programs in the country? Check
- Coach in your home state for a program you dreamed about playing for? Check
- Be in charge of mapping out the plans for one of the more star-studded recruiting staffs in college football? Check
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Before now, Orgeron has been hailed as one of the top recruiters in college football from his days at Miami and USC, where he twice served stints as the recruiting coordinator, including 2001-04 when the Trojans built a modern-day college football dynasty.
Consider that Orgeron excelled in his role at USC in luring top-notch talent to a storied program in a conference that, at the time, wasn’t all that stout from top to bottom. Now he gets to do so in the best league in the land and with a sales pitch that is 100 percent natural to him.
It’s not as if being heavily involved in recruiting for the Tigers will be new for Orgeron. As soon as he landed at LSU, he became Frank Wilson’s right-hand man in LSU’s efforts on the trail. But stepping into a new role allows Orgeron to oversee that task and it’s arguable that he may have a better crew working for him than Wilson ever did.
Corey Raymond, Bradley Dale Peveto and Jeff Grimes are back and more comfortable than ever in their recruiting roles, and the Tigers have added Jabbar Juluke and Dameyune Craig to the fold.
The two new assistants fill gaps created by Wilson’s departure and add different tools as well. Juluke is similar to Wilson – a New Orleans native who knows coaches around the city and was a high school coach there. Craig – a record-setting quarterback during his playing days at Auburn – may be the most versatile coach/recruiter Miles ever has hired. He was a decorated recruiting coordinator during a stint at Florida State and is an assistant who has pulled in influences from some of the best coaches in the game – Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher and Gus Malzahn, to name three. As vital as Craig will be expected to be on the recruiting trail, his quarterback background certainly has to be tapped into as well.
When LSU’s recruiting staff was headlined by Wilson and featured Orgeron and Kevin Steele, some deemed that trio a dream team. Add the two new faces and move the deck chairs a little – and give Peveto, Grimes and Raymond their due – and the dream team takes on a much more formidable personality.
And the man in charge of that staff and the recruiting efforts just so happens to be regarded as one of the best in the business on the recruiting trail. That makes the fit better than before.
Orgeron is not only home and in his dream job, but now LSU has him in the job that makes the most sense.
(You can follow Randy Rosetta on Twitter @RandyRosetta)
(Feature photo COURTESY LSU ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT)
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