Getty Image / Jonathan Bachman
It’s been a dramatic last week for the Northwestern Wildcat football program. Following the suspension and eventual firing of program legend and Wildcat all-time winningest coach Pat Fitzgerald on Friday and Monday, respectively, the program is in flux. They need a new head coach, and on Wednesday, rumors that former Ole Miss and LSU head coach Ed Orgeron was interested in the Northwestern job.
If that happened, it would be hilarious. He would be more out of place than Ted Lasso was going from coaching football in Wichita, Kansas to coaching in the Premier League in London. Coach O, as he is usually called, is quite possibly the most Louisianan man in the history of Louisiana. He’s a gem.
After really successful stints as an assistant at big-time programs like Miami and USC and a not-so-successful stint as the head coach at Ole Miss, he took over as interim coach at USC in 2013 and returned home to LSU as an assistant in 2015. Coach O was named head coach of the program after serving as an interim for most of the season in 2016 and was named permanent head coach. He brought a national title back to Baton Rouge in 2019, but was fired in 2021 after the program seemingly lost focus.
But, it was a major shock when Ed Orgeron was linked to the Northwestern job on Wednesday.
JUST IN: former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron "would have interest" in coaching at Northwestern, but has not yet heard from the school, per source.
The full story here: https://t.co/ryr0p8BceO
— Bradley Locker (@Bradley_Locker) July 12, 2023
Yeah, turns out that’s not true, as The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman spoke to Ed Orgeron and shot down the Northwestern rumors.
Spoke to Ed Orgeron. There is no truth to the report that he has any interest in the Northwestern coaching job nor has he heard from anyone at Northwestern.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) July 13, 2023
Shucks. That would’ve been fun.