Ed Orgeron Says He’s Got the Itch: Could Coach O Really Be Coming Back?

Ed Orgeron, the voice, the vibe, the shirtless jogging icon of Baton Rouge, has been away from football since LSU cut him loose in 2021. Four years of sun, sand, and buyout checks later, he says he’s ready again. “I think it’s time… I’m getting the itch again,” Coach O told PMT. And with that, the internet lit up like Tiger Stadium at night.

The Memes Wrote Themselves

CFB fans didn’t waste time with solemn analysis. The message boards immediately roasted the “itch” line.

• “Ed are we sure that itch isn’t from something else?”
• “It’s a coaching flare up.”
• “Not cayenne pepper in your pants, Coach.”

That’s Coach O in a nutshell: every time he speaks, it sounds like a Cajun riddle, and every time he pops back up in the news cycle, people can’t decide if he’s serious or just auditioning for another round of memes.

Where Could He Fit?

The big debate was where O could actually land. Names like Coastal Carolina, ECU, and Tulane got tossed around. Fans loved the thought of O barking “Chanticleers!” into the teal Carolina sky. Others joked he’d be perfect at a Sun Belt school with beaches, boosters, and cougars in the stands.

There’s always Auburn, of course—the program people say is crazy enough to hand him the headset and dumb enough to write him another monster buyout. Multiple posters said it flat out: “Go to Auburn and do the funniest thing ever.”

As for the big-time jobs? Harder to see. O can recruit and coach defensive linemen, no doubt. But as one fan put it, “He checked out of LSU hard after 2019. I’m not sure I want to hire a guy who may stop giving a damn even with $10M on the table.”

The LSU Legacy

LSU fans are split. Many will forever salute him for 2019, when Burrow, Chase, and Jefferson ran through college football like a buzzsaw. Some call him “our Gene Chizik”—the guy who caught lightning in a bottle, hoisted the trophy, then watched it all unravel fast.

But there’s still affection. “When the 2019 team has its 10-year reunion he will get cheered on,” one Tiger fan wrote. Another admitted the way it ended—girlfriends at practice, rumors about hitting on staffers’ wives, the program sliding—was “a celebration tour that lasted a year or two too long.”

Final Word

Coach O says he’s got the itch. Maybe it’s football, maybe it’s the paycheck drying up, maybe it’s just who he is. He’s 63 now, still loud, still funny, still capable of firing up a locker room with three syllables and a fist pump.

Is he a national title head coach again? Probably not. But as a defensive line coach, an interim spark, or the face of some Sun Belt circus? Absolutely. Because at the end of the day, the sport is better, funnier, and a little bit rowdier with Ed Orgeron prowling a sideline.

And wherever he lands, the press conference will end the only way it can: “Geaux Tigahs.”