LSU assistant coach Ed Orgeron is “doing better” after a health issue forced him to miss preseason practices and the first two games of the Tigers’ season, coach Lane Kiffin said on Monday.

Orgeron, the former LSU head coach who’s now working as a special assistant for recruiting and defense, first started battling the health issue in mid-August. Kiffin said on Aug. 17 that he had sent Orgeron home from a practice because he “wasn’t feeling real well.”

Since then, Orgeron has not been spotted in Tiger Stadium for either of the two contests the Tigers have played in 2026: a 51-10 win over Clemson and a 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech.

“It was a little bit scary,” Kiffin said, without detailing the specific issue.

Kiffin and Orgeron have known each other for over 20 years. They each worked on coach Pete Carroll’s staff at Southern Cal from 2001-04, and Orgeron worked under Kiffin when he was the head coach at Tennessee in 2009 and USC from 2010-13. Orgeron took over the Trojans’ program as interim coach after Kiffin was fired.

In May, Kiffin hired Orgeron to his LSU staff on a one-year, $100,000 contract. He’s spent the last four months helping the Tigers’ recruit high school players and coach defensive linemen.

Both Kiffin and Orgeron have also worked as head coaches at Ole Miss — Orgeron from 2005-07 and Kiffin from 2020-25.

“He means a lot to me,” Kiffin said. “We’ve just been through a lot. He probably shouldn’t have joked one day. He said, ‘Hey coach, you know I’m never going to the hospital. If I die, I’m dying on the field out there.’

“That’s who he is. That’s how he is with everything, and sometimes that’s not always the best thing to follow.”

Orgeron, 65, was LSU’s head coach from 2016-21. In 2019, he led the Tigers to a 15-0 record and a national championship. The school fired him during the 2021 season and hired coach Brian Kelly to replace him.

Kiffin, who’s at the start of his first season in Baton Rouge, said that Orgeron is spending parts of his weekdays at LSU’s football operations building. When asked on Monday if Orgeron will travel with the Tigers for their showdown with Ole Miss on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC), Kiffin said “we haven’t gotten that far yet.”

“He’s doing better,” Kiffin said. “He’s still not all the way back.”