:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70007507/1345764604.0.jpg)
Update 7:15 p.m. ET LSU AD Scott Woodward makes it official.
A Letter from Scott Woodward, LSU's Director of Athletics pic.twitter.com/eVGmqqIRbK
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) October 17, 2021
Update 6:58 p.m. ET The team is being told of Orgeron leaving at the end of the season in a team meeting starting shortly.
#LSU is holding a team meeting at 6 pm CT to announce the news about Ed Orgeron, sources tell @SINow.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 17, 2021
As part of the separation agreement "without cause," Orgeron is due his entire contracted buyout of roughly $16.9 million, sources say.
The Ed Orgeron era in Death Valley is officially coming to an end.
Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger reported Sunday afternoon that LSU and head football coach Ed Orgeron have reached a separation agreement that will officially end his head coaching tenure with the Tigers at the conclusion of the 2021 season.
At 4-3 on the year, it was heavily speculated that the national championship winning head coach would be ousted as the LSU head man at the end of the year, if not midway through the regular season. It seemed like he bought himself more time after the Tigers took down No. 20 Florida 49-42 on Saturday. According to Dellenger’s reports however, negotiations began last week before the contest.
The eccentric Louisiana native holds a record of 49-17 as the head coach of the Tigers, forever stamping his name into program and state lore by leading the team to a perfect 15-0 record in 2019 and a College Football Playoff title. However things have been rocky both on and off the field for Orgeron and the program since January of 2020. He’s gone 9-8 since their championship game victory over Clemson and ‘Coach O’ immediately started to draw comparisons to Gene Chizik, the former Auburn head coach who was fired just two years after leading that program to a BCS championship.
Details of LSU’s search for its next head coach have yet to surface, but it will certainly reset the market as the top job opening in the country.