Ed Orgeron has been on both sides of the ‘Magnolia Bowl’ rivalry between LSU and Ole Miss football. Saturday marks the 112th meeting between the two teams, who have played every year since 1894.
Coach O, 62, was born and raised in the Sportsman’s Paradise. He is a Louisianimal through and through, and led the Bayou Bengals to a national championship in 2019.
10 years prior to being hired at LSU, Orgeron was named the head football coach at Ole Miss in 2005. His three-year tenure in Oxford was an overwhelming disappointment and the Rebels lost 2.5 more games than they won.
As the head coach of Ole Miss, Orgeron played his first and only game in Baton Rouge in 2006. The Rebels were 27-point underdogs.
Prior to the game, Coach O told his players that he would get the opposing fanbase to cheer for them, not for the home team. Of course, getting Tiger Stadium to cheer for anything but LSU is impossible.
100,000+ fans pack into the stands every weekend and create one of the most intimidating home environments in all of sports. Death Valley at night is a very scary place for road teams.
But Orgeron had a plan, which he recently revealed during a mock press conference with Rhoback. He promised his players that the Tigers would cheer for the Rebels because he “got a little stroke down there.” They didn’t believe him, but he doesn’t make false promises.
Ed Orgeron followed through!
We were waiting in the tunnel, the state trooper’s right there, and I’m supposed to run out before LSU.
The state trooper says, ‘coach, you gotta go.”
Nuh uh. I ain’t going.
He says again, “coach, you gotta go!”
Nuh uh. I ain’t going.
And all of a sudden, here comes the Tigers. They run out…
…WE RUN OUT AT THE SAME TIME!
Their Tigers started cheering for their team, and we’re running out. And they see us, man, our team went crazy!
— Ed Orgeron, via Rhoback
Orgeron managed to get 100,000 LSU fans to cheer for Ole Miss… kind of.
The Rebels ultimately lost that game in overtime, but Coach O had his team ready to play! They had the entire crowd at Tiger Stadium behind them… kind of.