Orgeron seems bound for Vols

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jan 1, 2009 - UPDATED: 12:55 a.m.

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ATLANTA — Ed Orgeron got an unexpected early-morning visit from an old friend on Wednesday, and as a result he’s not heading to LSU as many had thought on Tuesday.

Instead, he’ll apparently be on the University of Tennessee staff as recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach.

Tuesday night, former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert, a lifelong friend of Orgeron’s, said he would be surprised if Orgeron didn’t end up on the LSU coaching staff.

Hebert said Orgeron, an assistant with the New Orleans Saints, told him the LSU administration offered Orgeron a job as assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator and was going to pay the former Ole Miss head coach $600,000 a year.

The Times-Picayune reported that Saints spokesman Greg Bensel confirmed Wednesday that Orgeron has been released from his contract and is leaving for Tennessee. An attempt Wednesday night to reach Bensel by The Advocate was unsuccessful.

LSU officials are not commenting on football personnel matters until after the team returns from playing in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Hebert said Orgeron told him he was going to come to a decision by New Year’s Day, but the process took an abrupt turn out of LSU’s favor Wednesday.

New Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin and his father Monte Kiffin took a university-owned jet to Destin, Fla., Wednesday morning where Orgeron, a Galliano native, and his family were vacationing. The Kiffins, according to Hebert, “wouldn’t leave Orgeron alone. They showed up and told him they were in it to win it and weren’t going to take no for an answer.”

Part of the Kiffins’ full-court press was apparently a substantially higher financial offer and by early in the afternoon, Orgeron told the Kiffins he would join the Volunteers’ staff.

“He told me (Wednesday) morning it was the hardest decision he’s ever had to make in his life and then when Monte and Lane Kiffin got there, he wrote down the pros and cons on a piece of paper and kept coming back to the idea of working for Monte Kiffin,” Hebert said. “That was the thing that finally decided it.”

The older Kiffin spent the last 13 years as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense coordinator and is regarded as one of the top defensive minds in the country after a 26-year career in the NFL.

“I’m so excited,” Orgeron was quoted as saying by ESPN.com. “I get to coach with Monte (Kiffin) and I’m getting to recruit again. It’s pedal to the metal and I can’t wait to get up there.”