{"id":847899,"date":"2026-09-14T21:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847899\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T21:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T21:24:26","slug":"lsus-ed-orgeron-doing-better-after-battling-health-issue-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847899\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU\u2019s Ed Orgeron \u2018doing better\u2019 after battling health issue | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

LSU<\/a> assistant coach Ed Orgeron<\/a> is \u201cdoing better\u201d after a health issue forced him to miss preseason practices and the first two games of the Tigers\u2019 season, coach Lane Kiffin<\/a> said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Orgeron, the former LSU head coach who\u2019s now working as a special assistant for recruiting and defense, first started battling the health issue in mid-August<\/a>. Kiffin said on Aug. 17 that he had sent Orgeron home from a practice because he \u201cwasn\u2019t feeling real well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> over Louisiana Tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit scary,\u201d Kiffin said, without detailing the specific issue.<\/p>\n

Kiffin and Orgeron have known each other for over 20 years. They each worked on coach Pete Carroll\u2019s 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\u2019 program as interim coach after Kiffin was fired.<\/p>\n

In May, Kiffin hired Orgeron to his LSU staff on a one-year, $100,000 contract. He\u2019s spent the last four months helping the Tigers\u2019 recruit high school players and coach defensive linemen.<\/p>\n

Both Kiffin and Orgeron have also worked as head coaches at Ole Miss \u2014 Orgeron from 2005-07 and Kiffin from 2020-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe means a lot to me,\u201d Kiffin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just been through a lot. He probably shouldn\u2019t have joked one day. He said, \u2018Hey coach, you know I\u2019m never going to the hospital. If I die, I\u2019m dying on the field out there.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s who he is. That\u2019s how he is with everything, and sometimes that\u2019s not always the best thing to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orgeron, 65, was LSU\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Kiffin, who\u2019s at the start of his first season in Baton Rouge, said that Orgeron is spending parts of his weekdays at LSU\u2019s 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 \u201cwe haven\u2019t gotten that far yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing better,\u201d Kiffin said. \u201cHe\u2019s still not all the way back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LSU assistant coach Ed Orgeron is \u201cdoing better\u201d after a health issue forced him to miss preseason practices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-847899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}