Photo courtesy Ole Miss Phi Kappa Psi
After a disappointing three seasons and a loss to Mississippi State last Friday at the Egg Bowl, Ole Miss announced that head coach Ed Orgeron would not return next year.
Earlier in the year, Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat announced that Coach O would return next year as head coach. But, perhaps a single call in a single game led to the administration’s change of heart. Ole Miss dominated on defense for most of the game. With a little over 10 minutes left in the game, a critical 4th down play call by Orgeron failed and gave the ball back to State with great field position. Included with the great field position was a truck full of momentum… enough to lead state to a 17-point rally to win the game by a final of 17-14.
The next day, Ole Miss announced that Orgeron would not return as head coach next year. Critics of Coach O supported his removal, pointing to a lack of success and head coaching ability (bad play calls, etc.).
I personally think that he should have been given one more year to try to turn things around. Coach O was an excellent recruiter and brought in some really great talent in his two full years of recruiting (No. 16 nationally in 2006 and No. 30 in 2007). Given another year with these recruits and QB transfer Jevan Snead, I think Ole Miss could have produced a winning season and a bowl bid.
Either way, it will be curious to see who Ole Miss selects as the next head coach and how all of this will affect next years recruiting class, which already has 22 commitments on the list.
