Kevin Steele, the new defensive coordinator for the LSU Tigers, has quite the resume. The new defensive line coordinator, Ed Orgeron (aka Coach O), is no slouch either. So 225 dug into the coaches’ respective pasts for some useful (or useless) trivia about these two big hires for the Tigers’ football program.
1. He played linebacker at Furman University in 1976 before transferring to the University of Tennessee for the ’78 and ’79 seasons.
2. He got a 1994 national championship ring as Nebraska’s linebackers coach.
3. Steele went to the NFL as a linebackers coach for the Carolina Panthers. In 1996, the team went to the NFC Championship game.
4. As head coach at Baylor, he went 9-36 in four seasons (1999-2002) and had a 1-31 record in the Big 12 Conference. He’s bounced back, though: In 2013 at Alabama, he led the nation in recruiting as director of player personnel.
5. A former defensive coordinator at Clemson University, Steele broke his hand in 2009 giving a pregame speech.
1. At one time, Coach O was one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the nation, with a salary as high as $650,000 during his time at the University of Tennessee. At LSU, he’ll make $450,000 per year in his two-year deal.
2. Orgeron is a Cajun. He grew up in Larose and played with quarterback Bobby Hebert at South Lafourche
High School.
3. While he was a defensive line coach at the University of Miami, Orgeron recruited Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
4. He had a short stint as the defensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints in 2008.
5. He made a small appearance as himself in the 2009 film The Blind Side.
