As McNeese State quarterback Cody Orgeron prepares to live out a childhood dream of playing in LSU’s Tiger Stadium this week, he promises with a grin that he won’t hold it against his father for trying to ruin it.
“I really think my dad’s going to tell them to get after me,” Cody Orgeron said of LSU head coach Ed Orgeron, who also helps oversee defensive linemen. “It’s no harsh feelings. It’s his job to do it and it’s my job to execute. I expect them to come at me full speed and I’m ready.”
Ed Orgeron said one of his old friends and colleagues, former NFL special teams coordinator Bobby April, advised him to cherish sharing the stage with his son, even as they try to beat each other.
“He said, ‘Man, enjoy this. This is a special moment.’ And it is,” Ed Orgeron recalled, adding that this game also marks the first time in his more than three decades of coaching that he received a ticket request from an opposing QB.
The elder Orgeron is renowned for animated, game-day motivational speeches that are loud, passionate, profanity-laced and sometimes barely intelligible. Ed Orgeron’s eyes smiled when asked to reflect on the tone and language he’s used over the years to implore pass rushers to take down quarterbacks, and whether anything might change against his son’s Cowboys this week.