Wilson Alexander
By Wilson Alexander
The Advocate/Times-Picayune
(Second in a series)
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Ed Orgeron walked shirtless with his wife past bright yellow and pink
restaurant awnings and the nearby ocean. The two of them made their way down a path that
traces the shoreline here on a sunny Saturday morning, then circled back behind the workout
equipment and volleyball courts on Muscle Beach as they continued their route.
Orgeron peeled his shirt back on before he sat down in News Cafe, the restaurant where
designer Gianni Versace ate before he was murdered on his way home in 1997. Orgeron, 64, is
known to come every weekend when he’s in town. It’s within walking distance of the high-rise
where he and his wife, Brandy, lived until last month, a condo on the 37th floor that overlooks
the ocean. The waiter knows him.
“Whadda ya say, my friend?” Orgeron said. “How you doing?”
“All good, capitán,” the waiter said. “I love this guy.”
This weekend, Orgeron returned to Miami for his twin sons, Parker and Cody. They are analysts
with the Hurricanes, and they’ll coach Monday night in the national championship game against
Indiana. His third son, Tyler Spotts-Orgeron, also reached the College Football Playoff as an
offensive analyst at Tulane. Orgeron spent the past month watching his boys help win the
American Conference title and make a CFP run.
“I couldn’t draw it up better,” Orgeron said.
It has been six years since Orgeron led LSU to the national title and a little more than four since
he coached his last game. He sounds content with his life. He accomplished his two professional
goals, and after LSU fired him in 2021, he and his wife have spent most of their time in Miami
Beach. They enjoy having some privacy. Brandy said “all he does is work out all day every day.”
“I wanted to be the head coach at LSU, and I wanted to win the national championship,”
Orgeron said. “That was my goal. Period. Could I sustain that for years? I wish I could have. It
didn’t happen. But I did what I wanted to do.”
But now, Orgeron wants to get back into coaching. He started looking for work over the past
year, in part because the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in June that he owes his ex-wife $8.13
million of his buyout from LSU. He and Brandy moved back to Baton Rouge when their lease
ended in early December, thinking he might get a job.
Nothing has materialized yet. Lane Kiffin never called about coming back to LSU. He spoke to
the Arkansas athletic director once about its head coach opening, but that didn’t go anywhere.
Orgeron said some people may be interested in hiring him as an NFL defensive line coach, so
he’s waiting to see where things go while still enjoying retirement.
“If the right situation comes in coaching, I’m going to go get after it again,” Orgeron said. “Now,
do I expect to be a national championship coach? I’m not expecting that. I’m not expecting to
be a head coach. I was happy being a defensive line coach. I loved it. I love coaching football. I
love being retired. Either one would be fine.”
Louisiana to Miami and back
After he got fired, Orgeron wanted to help his sons get their own careers started. In the spring
of 2022, he told Cody to come with him when he spoke at Miami’s coaches clinic. Cody had
finished his career as McNeese State’s quarterback a year earlier. Orgeron knew Miami head
coach Mario Cristobal, who played offensive line when Orgeron was the Hurricanes’ defensive
line coach from 1988-92.
“You got a spot for my boy?” Orgeron asked Cristobal.
“Let me spend a day with him,” he recalled Cristobal saying.
Cristobal offered a job, and Cody spent the past four years helping with the quarterbacks and
the running backs. Parker joined two years ago after stints at UL and Baylor. During games, he
sits in the box identifying offensive personnel packages. Meanwhile, Tyler has been at Tulane
for three seasons. Orgeron said they all want to be coordinators one day.
“Coach Orgeron, to me, was very special,” Cristobal said. “He was the D-line coach when I was a
player at Miami. He used to always just annihilate us. I was on the scout team as an offensive
lineman. He was hard on us, tough on us and I learned a lot from him. His sons have that DNA
as well.”
There have been “growing pains” as the twins learn what it takes to be a successful coach,
Orgeron said. They’re 27 years old, so they’re doing a lot of things for the first time. They’ve
gotten chewed out. They had to adjust to long days at the office without much sleep.
Orgeron encouraged them to find role models in the profession the way he once did, but
otherwise, he has tried to stay out of the way unless they ask for advice. He knows they want to
move up the ladder soon. He tells them to be patient.
“You know, like a pregnant woman, they’re ready to have the baby,” Orgeron said. “And they
are. They’ve been there, they’re ready to coach their positions.”
Orgeron said that was his focus for most of the past four years. At the same time, he has
enjoyed retirement. He remarried a few years after he and his first wife got divorced in 2020.
He and Brandy thought about settling in Destin, Florida, but they enjoy having more anonymity
in Miami Beach. While people recognize Orgeron, not as many of them say “Roll Tide” or “Hotty
Toddy” to him.
“Not everybody here is a football fan,” Brandy said. “Living here is like a foreign vacation. We
go to The Fontainebleau and yes, he’s getting stopped every five steps asking for pictures
because that’s where all the tourists are. But down on South Beach, he’ll get people that know,
but it’s not like we’re in Louisiana, where you can’t take five steps.”
‘I want to coach again’
In Miami Beach, Orgeron has the same routine every day. He wakes up at 5:15 a.m. before
going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He said he has been sober for 26 years. Brandy
attends a hot pilates class, and he works out at the condo. After that, he rides a Peloton bike.
They walk or jog a 4.2-mile route through South Beach, and Orgeron usually gets another
workout in the sand. They spend the rest of the day relaxing and watching television.
Orgeron said he would feel content to keep living this way, but there are times when he wants
to get back into football as he jogs along the beach, especially when he’s alone if Brandy is out
of town visiting her two children. While he does not miss the long hours, he wants to feel the
intensity and the energy on game day.
“I want to coach again if it’s the right situation,” Orgeron said. “In five years, I’ll be 70. Instead
of sitting here for five years and trying to get a job at 70 — I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I think I’m still marketable. Not as marketable as I was. But I think there’s still a good shot at
getting a good job.”
Believing his children are in stable positions, Orgeron thought now was the right time to get
back to work. Two other things also happened within the past year. The Louisiana Supreme
Court ruled that he owed his ex-wife, Kelly, half of his $17.1 million buyout, and LSU sent his
last payment in December. Though Orgeron said he “saved most of my money,” he admitted
the court ruling contributed to why he wants to coach again.
“It’s that competitive nature in me,” Orgeron said. “It does have something to do with it, no
question. It did motivate me to say, ‘Hey, you know what? You’re not getting paid. Your bank
account went from there to there. If you just live off of that, obviously, that’s going to go down.
But if you let it grow back and you go back to work, you’re going to be set.’”
Orgeron would take a job as a defensive line coach or recruiting coordinator. He thought Kiffin
might approach him when he got hired at LSU last month. They have known each other for two
decades after coaching at Southern Cal and Tennessee. Orgeron wanted to hire Kiffin as his first
offensive coordinator at LSU before Kiffin took a head coaching job at Florida Atlantic in 2016.
But there was never serious interest from LSU.
“I also understand that when you get the head (coach) job,” Orgeron said, “you got to get it the
way you want it now, and if it don’t fit, it don’t fit.”
After he talked to Arkansas’ athletic director, Orgeron studied what it takes to build a roster
these days. It has changed since he last coached because of direct player compensation and
unlimited transfers. Working with an agent who lives in his complex, he designed a graph for
how much every position on the team should make so he would be ready.
It never came to that, at least not yet. At the moment, Orgeron and his wife are living at the
home they kept in U-Club. He’ll continue to look for work, and if he doesn’t get another job,
they plan to move back to Miami Beach.
As they left the restaurant Saturday, they turned left to finish their walk for the day. They had
dinner plans that night with friends, and they looked forward to watching his sons try to win a
championship of their own.
“I can stay retired,” Orgeron said. “I’m fine. I have enough money. We’re all set. Just like my
kids, I’m going to practice patience. And if nothing comes, I’ll be on South Beach.”
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