The Full Monte Kiffin: The Essence of Ed Orgeron

By: Knox McCoy

The Essence of Ed Orgeron

Of all the talent migrating into Knoxville this off-season, the most impressive “get” this recruiting season was the crazy Cajun himself, Ed Orgeron. No ordinary coach, Orgeron is a one-man stimulus plan and Kiffin is banking on as much as his chances for success rest squarely on Orgeron’s broad and scarcely clothed shoulders.

Take your worst shot at Coach O. He can take it. Shirtless probably. He is a dynamo of energy and focus and the foundation upon which Lane Kiffin is balancing his legitimacy as an SEC coach.

How so you ask? More than Monte Kiffin’s pro experience or Jim Chaney’s offensive innovation, Ed Orgeron is charged with the most difficult task: getting elite national recruits to Knoxville.

In and of itself, a task like that sounds overwhelming and impossible. But Ed Orgeron was built for impossible.

Detractors may point to his underwhelming stay in Oxford as the coach of Ole Miss. So maybe his time leading the Rebels didn’t go dynastically. So what? It’s freaking Ole Miss. They are the lap dogs of the SEC: Little body, big ego.

I get it. Ole Miss has given us The Grove, Faulkner’s Estate, Sandra Bullock in A Time to Kill and Archie Manning. But a sweaty Bullock does not an SEC contender make and the Manning’s have been more overexposed than Jon and Kate Plus 8 of late.

Seriously, give Houston Nutt a couple of years after Orgeron’s players trickle out and see how long before he’s run out of town by an army of seer-suckered, suspender-wearing blue bloods. (Hint: 3 years).

But all that is irrelevant. Some men like Scottie Pippen, Silent Bob, and Barney Rubble were born to be #2s. It is their niche within the universe and it is where they thrive.

Similarly, Orgeron thrives on the recruiting trail and not as a headman. Chitchatting high school football coaches? Check. Making half-time small talk with Holly Rowe? Not so much. This understanding underscores the massive faith Kiffin has placed within his recruiting coordinator.

For anyone who has read Meat Market, Orgeron’s life and path within the coaching profession is well chronicled. But as good as the book was, the scope was so large that it sometimes skimmed over Orgeron’s mythical motor and appetite for caffeine.

After reading, I was left wondering, beyond the Red Bull, colloquialisms, and relentless recruiting, how is he able to be so successful at what he does?

Simply put, there is an aura about the man. He’s a cross between something out of a Flannery O’Connor short story and a southern fried version of Thor the hammer god. Armed with boundless energy and immeasurable enthusiasm, Orgeron can connect with recruits across the country because of an innate passion for football.

In the business of the game today, attentions can be diverted and otherwise good coaches can meander off the path blazed by Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno, and Bobby Bowden.

Recruits are becoming more and more savvy to their own influence and to the institutional situations they shop themselves to. No longer are they beholden to certain coaches or programs. The players are now the kingmakers.

Not only that, but among the coaching ranks, lesser men find themselves trapped inside the labyrinth of balancing success on the recruiting trail and personal success in the form of promotions and personal branding. Ed Orgeron laughs at such men.

He is able to burst through the walls of distraction like the Kool-Aid guy due to one thing: his uncanny ability to communicate plain and simply to the heart of the matter. His passion for the game of football is first and foremost and every recruit he comes in contact with is witness to his maniacal approach to playing football.

Recruits are sharp enough to discern if their recruiter is more gimmick than gospel. Orgeron’s tactic is to appeal to a player’s most primitive and basic competitive instincts. The simplicity of his technique is both respectable and profound.

His approach has already paid tremendous dividends in his cultivation of a top-10 recruiting class that was scanted by his and Kiffin’s late start. Some programs may consider such a class a major achievement, but for Orgeron, it is just a stepping-stone. As the foundation for the program’s revitalization, he has his work cut for him. Time for another Red Bull.