Every Monday morning, Peter King puts out a long-form article called "Football Morning in America" that talks about all of the headlines in the NFL. I find it to be one of the better weekly articles out there and has a lot of good stuff. Anyway, he commented on his thoughts on the LSU/Ed Orgeron split and I think he really hit home with his comments. It was interesting to read how someone who is not heavily involved with college football (he covers NFL) thinks about what went down.

And after reading this, the more I think about it, Orgeron's comment at the press conference about "being able to afford a hamburger" or whatever he said... holy hell, what a piece of work. Good riddance.

quote:
I think I have a thought or two about college football today. Particularly, LSU coach/coach-about-to-be-fired/mailing-it-in-for-the-rest-of-the-year Ed Orgeron. He will not coach LSU after this season. He and the university have agreed that he is out in two months, and that he will be paid the remainder of his contract over the next four years regardless whether he works anywhere else. LSU will pay him $16.8 million to not coach. That’s not particularly outrageous in the coaching business. But here some evidence that Orgeron is luckiest man on the face of the earth because of one decision he made in 2018—admitting Joe Burrow to play at LSU. Some facts to consider:

• Orgeron went 10-25 at his first head-coaching job, Ole Miss, from 2005-07, then took a year to address some personal demons.

• After bouncing around at various jobs, he got the LSU head-coaching job in 2016 and went 15-6 in his first two seasons.

• With Burrow on board, LSU went 10-3 in 2018 and 15-0 in 2019. Burrow, Justin Jefferson and J’Marr Chase led the team to one of the great runs in college history.

• Since the national championship win led by the greatest quarterback season in college history, LSU is 9-9.

The school said last week that it will seek a new coach for 2022 after the season. Orgeron, who had not met with his coaching staff for at least the first two full days after the announcement of his departure, said he will not coach next year. He did say he will be fine financially. “I think I’m gonna have enough money to buy me a hamburger,” Orgeron said.

Gross.

Joe Burrow got a lot of this partnership. Orgeron gave him a starting job in the SEC. Burrow gave LSU a championship. I doubt Burrow even thinks about it, but I know how I’d feel if I were in Burrow’s shoes, making nothing while this coach makes $17 million because his team went 15-0 in 2019 and won a title with the greatest performance by a quarterback in college history.

There are so many things about pro football that are unjust. Currently, Roger Goodell’s soft treatment of Washington owner Dan Snyder leads that category. I won’t say Orgeron getting the gift of Burrow, then presiding over the decline of a great program and collecting $16.8 million while watching it is as bad. But this Orgeron thing is crazy.

LINK

This post was edited on 10/25/21 at 1:59 pm