According to media reports, Ed Orgeron, 61, the former head coach of the LSU Tigers, has shown interest in taking the vacant head coaching job at Northwestern University.

The development comes after Pat Fitzgerald, the head coach of the Northwestern Wildcats, was recently fired following an inquiry into charges of hazing at the school.

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Who is Ed Orgeron?

Ed Orgeron, also known as Edward James Orgeron Jr., is a successful American football coach. From the middle of the 2016 season to the end of the 2021 season, he was Louisiana State University’s (LSU) head football coach. From 2005 to 2007, Orgeron served as the head football coach at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) prior to his time at LSU.

In 2013, he additionally served as the University of Southern California’s (USC) temporary head coach. Notably, Orgeron guided the 2019 LSU Tigers football team to a national title win in the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship by defeating Clemson.

In 1984, Ed Orgeron started his coaching career at Northwestern State as a graduate assistant. He took up coaching at McNeese State in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the following year. After that, he spent two years as Ken Hatfield’s assistant strength coach at the University of Arkansas.

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Orgeron began his employment at the University of Miami in 1988 as the defensive line coach, serving as an assistant to head coaches Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson. The program flourished when he was at Miami, earning two national championships in 1989 and 1991.

Eight All-Americans, including noteworthy first-round NFL draft, picks like Cortez Kennedy, Russell Maryland, and Warren Sapp, were coached by Orgeron. Notably, he was instrumental in getting teenage Dwayne Johnson, later known as “The Rock” in his professional wrestling and acting endeavors, to sign on as a defensive lineman for the club.

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He was previously married to Colleen Orgeron. He later met his second wife, Kelly, at the 1996 Liberty Bowl. The couple has three children together.