LSU assistant coach Ed Orgeron is back on the mend after a health issue kept him out of preseason work and the Tigers’ first two games, according to coach Lane Kiffin.
Kiffin said Monday that Orgeron is “doing better” after the issue began in mid-August. On Aug. 17, Kiffin said he had sent Orgeron home from a practice because he “wasn’t feeling real well.”
Orgeron has not been seen at Tiger Stadium for LSU’s first two games of 2026, both wins: a 51-10 rout of Clemson and a 45-14 victory over Louisiana Tech. Kiffin said the situation was serious enough to be concerning, though he did not get into specifics.
“It was a little bit scary,” Kiffin said, without detailing the specific issue.
Kiffin and Orgeron have a long history that stretches back more than two decades. They were both on Pete Carroll’s staff at Southern Cal from 2001-04, and Orgeron later worked for Kiffin at Tennessee in 2009 and at USC from 2010-13. Orgeron eventually took over USC as interim coach after Kiffin was fired.
Their professional paths also crossed at Ole Miss, where Orgeron coached from 2005-07 and Kiffin later served as head coach from 2020-25.
In May, Kiffin brought Orgeron onto his LSU staff on a one-year, $100,000 deal. Since then, Orgeron has been helping the Tigers with high school recruiting and working with defensive linemen. Kiffin said Orgeron has been spending part of his weekdays at LSU’s football operations building.
“He means a lot to me,” Kiffin said. “We’ve just been through a lot.
He probably shouldn’t have joked one day. He said, ‘Hey coach, you know I’m never going to the hospital.
If I die, I’m dying on the field out there.’
“That’s who he is. That’s how he is with everything, and sometimes that’s not always the best thing to follow.”
Orgeron, 65, was LSU’s head coach from 2016-21 and guided the Tigers to a 15-0 season and a national championship in 2019. LSU fired him during the 2021 season and replaced him with Brian Kelly.
Kiffin said Monday it’s not yet clear whether Orgeron will travel with the team for Saturday’s game at Ole Miss, set for 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
“We haven’t gotten that far yet.”
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