HOOVER, Ala. -- For a long time it was easy to laugh at Ed Orgeron. Behind his back of course.
The barrel-chested LSU head coach still looks like he could wrestle an alligator and win.
Way back when he was the head coach at Ole Miss and in his first appearance for SEC Media Days, Orgeron gripped the podium so hard it looked like it might snap in half.
In those days, his deep Louisiana accent combined with his gravelly voice made him the butt of many jokes because he couldn't be understood.
As the head coach at Ole Miss he once ripped off his shirt and challenged his team to wrestle him.
That Ed Orgeron is long gone.
The man who admitted he once was kicked out of an adult drinking establishment and waited on the bouncer to finish the score now spends every possible minute away from football with his family.
He's confessed that he looked back at his days at Ole Miss and saw far too many mistakes.
While some LSU fans have long felt he was the wrong man to be the head coach at the long-time national powerhouse, Orgeron has slowly proven he's a different man, a different coach since he left Oxford, Miss., with a 10-25 record.
Six years after he was fired at Ole Miss he was named the interim head coach at Southern California and went 6-2.
He wasn't retained and landed at LSU a little over a year later. When Les Miles was fired four games into the 2016 season Orgeron again was named the interim head coach. The Tigers went 6-2 and Orgeron was then was named the head coach.
LSU has gone 19-7 overall and 11-5 in the SEC the last two seasons, and while some fans still aren't ready to believe in Coach O, he now fits the SEC.
Monday, in a perfectly tailored suit and sporting a tan from a recent family vacation, Orgeron strolled confidently to the center stage for SEC Media Days.
He was relaxed and comfortable.
The gravelly voice is there -- he was born with that -- but these days he speaks in deliberate, understandable sentences. The passion is controlled and he's less worried about what the fans think compared to what he knows.
"I will block out the noise," he said. "Statement is going to be there again this year. Last year there was negativity. We have to get back to the true grit, the fundamentals it takes at camp and block out the noise. I know our team's going do that with tremendous leadership."
He didn't stand up there and shout out he came to kick butts, but made it clear, 10-3 last season was not his goal.
"I believe last year was pivotal," he said. "We've proven we can win. Having a 10-win season is good. It is not great. It puts us in position to take the next step at LSU, for what LSU deserves."
Orgeron, like every coach in the SEC West, knows he is chasing Alabama, and with 16 starters returning some believe the Tigers have a chance to get back to the SEC Championship Game.
Their last appearance was 2011 and a month later they lost the national championship to Alabama.
Orgeron, who turns 58 on July 27, has paid his dues. He had 11 different jobs before getting the call to take over the reins of the No. 1 school in his home state.
The graduate of Northwestern State from tiny Galliano, La., population 7,300, has been a grinder his entire life, but he's different now.
Quarterback Joe Burrow warned reporters Monday not to underestimate his coach because he's smarter than people think.
That may not have always seemed the case, but today Ed Orgeron seems the consummate LSU man, confident without being cocky and comfortable in his own skin.
Sports on 07/17/2019