Lane Kiffin says Ed Orgeron is 'doing better' after a health issue that was 'a little bit scary'

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Ed Orgeron’s return to the LSU sidelines has been delayed because of health issues.

LSU coach Lane Kiffin said Monday that the former Tigers coach was “doing better” after dealing with a health scare before the season. Orgeron, who was hired as an assistant by Kiffin after the former Ole Miss coach came to LSU, has been away from the team since before the season officially began.

“He’s doing better. It was a little bit scary, I’m going to get into the details with that but — so he’s doing better. He’s still not all the way back and he just means a lot to me. We’ve just been through a lot. And his passion — probably shouldn’t have joked one day. He said ‘Hey coach you know I’m never going to hospital, man. If I die I’m dying on that field out there.’ So that’s who he is, that’s how he is with everything and sometimes that’s not the best thing to follow.”

Orgeron was named a special assistant to recruiting and defense in May. After the Tigers had fired Brian Kelly midway through the 2025 season, Orgeron made it clear that he would love the opportunity to coach at LSU again and said he was just “one phone call away.”

Orgeron took over from Les Miles five games into the 2016 season and was in charge through 2021 as LSU went undefeated and won the national championship in 2019. Overall, the Tigers were 51-20 in his time in Baton Rouge.

Like Kiffin, Orgeron was also a head coach at Ole Miss before he was LSU’s head coach. However, Kiffin said Monday that the two had not talked about that commonality ahead of LSU’s trip to Oxford in Week 3.

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