Ed Orgeron Takes Shot At Brian Kelly After Return To LSU

Ed Orgeron is back at LSU as a special assistant to his longtime friend Lane Kiffin and he had some choice words for Kiffin's predecessor, Brian Kelly.

At the end of the 2021 college football season, LSU famously poached Kelly from Notre Dame to replace Orgeron, who had been ousted after two disappointing seasons following his national title win in 2019. Kelly made his debut in front of the LSU fans at halftime of a basketball game and tried to fire up the crowd by putting on a fake southern accent.

In an interview with Pardon My Take, Orgeron revealed that Kelly's bad accent made a terrible first impression on him. He said that he recognized immediately that Kelly's tenure at LSU wouldn't last. Coach O explained that his actions made it clear that he puts on airs and can't be trusted by fans, let alone players.

"It's over," Orgeron said. "You ain't got a chance. You ain't got a chance, man. Not only did the fans see it, the players saw that. And they're like… hmm. One of the things is that players have to trust you. You have to be who you are. If you try and be somebody that you ain't, they're going to smell it right away."

To his credit, Kelly got his tenure off to a solid start, reaching the SEC title game in his first year and going 10-3 with a top-12 finish in his second. But things started to unravel in 2024 and by 2025 both the team and the goodwill had collapsed.

Kelly was fired after a 5-3 start to the 2025 season and is currently out of football for the first time in over 40 years.

Coach O and Lane

Orgeron, despite his struggles with the team that led to his dismissal after the 2021 season, remains a wildly popular figure not just at LSU but the entire state of Louisiana. Unlike Kelly, his Louisiana accent is 100-percent authentic and his credentials as both a recruiter and a defensive assistant are second to none.

Orgeron worked alongside Kiffin in several different stints, most notably at USC. He worked alongside Kiffin under Pete Carroll in the early 2000s and was later hired at Kiffin's defensive coordinator at USC when he took the job in 2010.

Now the two are reunited in Baton Rouge and hope to enjoy even more success together in 2026 and beyond.

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 11:56 AM.