Another former Ole Miss Rebels football coach is stirring the pot on Oxford’s reputation with recruits

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Another former Ole Miss Rebels football coach is stirring the pot on Oxford’s reputation with recruits originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Former Ole Miss Rebels football coach Ed Orgeron has added more fuel to the fire about Oxford, Mississippi’s problematic reputation among some recruits this week, not long after Lane Kiffin’s bombshell accusations in a now-infamous Vanity Fair article were published.

Orgeron, who, like Kiffin, was at Ole Miss before landing with the LSU Tigers later in his career, talked about the “stigma” surrounding The Grove during a conversation with WWL's Mike Detillier.

"I mean, they had a history there of, you know, racism and Colonel Reb, but you know what, when we got there, the kids that we had were treated good and they had success, but we did face it in recruiting and they still have that stigma, but look, they overcame it. They got some great players. They’ve had success, graduated, went on to the NFL,” Orgeron said.

Ed Orgeron’s comments pile on a bad week for Ole Miss’ PR

While nowhere near as biting as the comments Kiffin made, Orgeron’s statements come off as a pile-on. Kiffin’s comments were quickly followed by an attack on the University of Mississippi’s academics by Texas Longhorns football coach Steve Sarkisian.

It’s been a bad week for the Rebels. Hell, it’s the kind of week that feels like it could be followed up with momentum towards a removal of the “Rebels” name altogether. Ole Miss has been moving away from confederate-era symbols like Colonel Reb, in 2003, Rebel the Black Bear, in 2018, and even the team’s official flag, which was changed in 2015. The momentum from that eventually led to the state’s flag changing in 2020.

Of course, it has to be said that these coaches seemed to have collectively decided to bring this all up at the same time. Orgeron had an unsuccessful run coaching the Rebels, going 10-25 from 2005 to 2007. He won a title at LSU in 2020.

That’s not the full context of why he talked about the team’s “stigman,” but it’s worth noting that Orgeron has shown an interest in joining Kiffin’s coaching staff.

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