Ole Miss, LSU coaches trade compliments
OXFORD – When Ole Miss hired Southern Cal defensive line coach Ed Orgeron as new head football coach 13 years ago, he replaced the fired David Cutcliffe's entire coaching staff. Well, everyone but Matt Luke. “He’s an outstanding man,” Orgeron, now the head coach at LSU, said Monday of now-Ole Miss head coach Luke. “I think that Ole Miss did a great job in hiring Matt. He loves Ole Miss, is a great recruiter there and is doing a phenomenal job with his team.”
Both Orgeron, who LSU put in charge as interim head coach early in the 2016 season and hired permanently at the end of that year, and Luke, who had last season’s interim tag removed in November, made several stops between their overlap at Ole Miss in 2005 and their dream jobs.
Saturday in Tiger Stadium, the former coworkers meet for the first time as two full-time head coaches of the teams they grew up rooting for.
“He had tremendous energy, and I’m sure his players are feeding off that,” Luke said of Orgeron after practice Wednesday. “(He) does an unbelievable job recruiting, and I think you can see that with the players that they have.”
Orgeron's approach to recruiting had a lasting influence on Luke, who served as recruiting coordinator under Orgeron for one season.
“They were a little bit ahead of the curve coming out from Southern Cal to here,” Luke said after practice Wednesday. “So I thought there was a lot of stuff he was doing good, maybe ahead of everyone else at that time.”
It was novel enough for then-ESPN writer Bruce Feldman, thanks to the complete open access granted by Orgeron, to pen the book "Meat Market."
Luke has since had other influences on his coaching career. He rejoined Cutcliffe in 2006 at Tennessee when Cutcliffe returned to serve a second Vols' stint as offensive coordinator under head coach Phillip Fulmer.
When Cutcliffe became Duke's head coach in 2008, Luke followed him there. He then joined new Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze’s staff in 2011 as co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
But now, more than a decade after Orgeron brought those “ahead-of-thecurve” recruiting tactics to Ole Miss, the LSU coach’s praise of Luke’s recruiting ability is merited.
Since taking over as interim head coach at the beginning of last season, Luke has revamped the Ole Miss recruiting office. Through the cloud of unresolved NCAA sanctions, he somehow recruited a top-35 2018 class, according to rankings by 247Sports and ESPN. The Rebels’ 2019 recruiting crop is shaping up nicely, currently a consensus top-20 group.
Meanwhile in Baton Rouge, Orgeron’s next recruiting class is ranked among the nation's top 10.
Orgeron was once considered one of the worst SEC head coaches in history with his 10-25 overall record and 3-21 league mark from 2005-07 at Ole Miss. Now, he's leading an unbeaten team nationally ranked No. 5 by the AP and No. 6 in the coaches poll.