‘It’s Just Funny’ — Former LSU QB Makes Feelings Clear on Lane Kiffin’s $100K Ed Orgeron Hire
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First-year LSU head coach Lane Kiffin shook up the college football world by officially hiring Ed Orgeron back to Baton Rouge as a special assistant to recruiting and defense. Former LSU quarterback Josh Booty is among those who believe in the potential success of the Kiffin-Orgeron pair, but he also found the move interesting for one reason.
Josh Booty Reveals Why He Finds Lane Kiffin’s Ed Orgeron Hiring Funny
Michigan five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood was once committed to LSU before ultimately flipping to the Wolverines after an aggressive recruiting push. Losing the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class exposed just how much LSU needed to strengthen its recruiting efforts to retain commits and attract blue-chip prospects.
The Tigers are hoping to address that issue by bringing Kiffin to Baton Rouge. He is known as the transfer portal king and wasted little time making an impact by landing high-profile additions such as quarterback Sam Leavitt.
However, Kiffin doubled down on the long-term elite recruitment target by bringing back Orgeron, a native of the Louisiana bayou and a legendary recruiter. This is why Booty believes Orgeron is perfectly suited for his new position at LSU.
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“He’s in the spot that he should be in. He is a great recruiter,” Booty said about Orgeron. “He loves Lane Kiffin. He loves the state of Louisiana. He loves the high school coaches in the state of Louisiana. He’s going to gather a lot of those recruits for Lane and to get them all fired up about being there.
“He’s going to showcase his knowledge of the program, being inside of it for so long. He’s been there several stints now, and he’s been in the SEC, too. He’s a perfect combination of fun. He understands football. He loves coaching the defensive line and recruiting. I think when you parlay, he’s parlaying all that with his track record of being a national championship coach, it’s just funny that he can come and play and be happy in that role.”
Any discussion about Orgeron’s LSU legacy is incomplete without mentioning the unforgettable 2019 season. He led the Tigers to a perfect 15-0 season and a College Football Playoff National Championship, producing one of the greatest teams in college football history.
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Orgeron’s final years in Baton Rouge were far less successful, but that championship season established an incredibly high standard. That is why Booty admitted he was both excited and somewhat surprised to see Orgeron return in an assistant role under Kiffin.
Orgeron’s new role also comes with a much smaller paycheck, as LSU is reportedly paying him $100,000 as a special assistant under a contract that runs through January 31, 2027. For comparison, the school made the final payment on his original $16.9 million buyout in December, for a total of $426,000.
Orgeron will now earn less than one-fourth of that amount through his assistant’s salary, but not everything can be measured with money, at least not his loyalty towards LSU.
One of the big moments of Orgeron’s tenure came in 2018, when he successfully recruited quarterback Joe Burrow from the transfer portal after the former Ohio State signal-caller entered the market. That move laid the foundation for LSU’s historic championship run, and the Tigers are now hoping Orgeron can once again spark that same recruiting magic in Baton Rouge.
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