- Jun 19, 2014
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Founding Member
Alright,
Over the thanksgiving holiday there was a thread that involved a discussion about coach O. I commented at the time that I had a great personal story about him from an old friend. I know I posted the story on the board years ago but it may have been on the old board because it was around 2012 when my friend relayed it. I dug around but didnt find anything here, and since I was supposed to post it but didnt, and considering the rumors of him to the D line gaining steam, here goes:
This story was relayed to me by a Mississippi high school hall of fame football coach. I served with and for this individual in the USAR for about 2 years in the 2011/12 timeframe. He was an O5 at the time and our section chief but now long since retired. I was a young O3. So we were on a warfighter exercise at FT Dix, NJ in January and were sitting around one afternoon talking about the 25 years he coached highschool football in Mississippi. He coached one of the large highschools in Jackson and had a long history of success including 2 state championships and a long list of kids that went on to play high level D1 ball in the SEC, some of them later to the NFL. At any rate we were talking about college ball and somehow Ed Orgeron came up. He laughed and said he met the guy one time at a coaching clinic and followed up by saying he had to be the dumbest SOB he'd ever met. Here's the story:
Most highschool coaches attend coaching clinics in the offseason (summer months) and many times classes are taught by college coaches on various football topics. So my buddy was at one in central Mississippi during the time that Orgeron was HC at Ole Pisser. The clinic was at a large in state highschool and classes were being taught in the gym; coaches in attendance were seated in student desks and there was an overhead projector in the front lighting up a large white screen. They had just completed a class, taken a 10 minute break and when they sat down again, the host instructor said he had a special guest set to teach the next course and it was going to be on defensive line techniques and strategies. Well, from a side door about that time, in walks Ed Orgeron. My buddy said he came in just as youd imagine, owning the room, grumbling in a happy but intense manner, big smile on his face though, shakes the hosts hand, then introduces himself as the HC of Ole Miss. He starts talking about back in the day when he was a "DQ" how he learned a whole lot about defensive strategy, line positions, development, etc and wanted to talk to them about it. He sees the overhead projector, turns and grabs a marker from a table nearby, but its a sharpie permanent, not a dry erase that was supposed to be used on the glass top of the projector. The host notices and tries to stop him but Orgeron just sort of grumbles and waves him off. My buddy said right then he knew this was gonna be an interesting next few minutes. With the host instructor sort of standing there unsure of what to do and looking a bit embarrased, Ogre starts grunting about defensive line formations, stunts, etc as he scrawls some Xs and Os on the projector glass with his black permanent marker. Nothing fancy mind you, just essentially hat on a hat positioning, then he looks up from the projector screen and starts yelling, "now you gotta punch em in da mouf!" over and over again, at first punching the air, then pounding the empty desk nearby the projector. After a minute or so he goes back to the projector and marks it up a bit more, and then follows with more of the same grunting and intensity that he is known for. All the while he keeps reminding everyone that he knows a lot about this stuff from his time as a defensive line coach and a "DQ." He talks for another 10-15 minutes about defense before starting to wrap up. As he is finishing up he tells all the coaches that he is more than willing to help anyone out any time and reminds them that he knows a lot because he used to be a "DQ." He'd probably used the term 7 or 8 times at this point so finally one of thea coaches raises his hand and asks him "coach, whats a DQ?" My buddy said Ogre had a bit of shocked expression, then replied, "Well god damn son, its a defensive cooordinatuhhhh." At that point, my friend and a lot of others nearly lost it but Ogre was so into it he didnt even notice. He then grabs the sharpie one last time, tells the coaches that he's going to leave his personal cell number for them and that they can contact him any time day or night. He starts writing down a number but when he finishes my buddy notices that it has an area code, a 3 digit prefix, but only 3 of the final four digits written on the projector screen. Before he can say anything someone else pipes up, "coach, hey coach, thats only 9 digits, you're missing a digit on your phone number." Orgeron looks at the glass top for a second then mutters "damn" to himself, then looks at the coaches and says "ah hell, give em another zero", then adds a zero to the end of the number and walks out.
Caveats - im retelling this from memory from over 10 years ago so i probably left a few things out, but my buddy had me and 3 other guys absolutely rolling when he told it to us. Was some of the funnies stuff I'd ever heard.
Over the thanksgiving holiday there was a thread that involved a discussion about coach O. I commented at the time that I had a great personal story about him from an old friend. I know I posted the story on the board years ago but it may have been on the old board because it was around 2012 when my friend relayed it. I dug around but didnt find anything here, and since I was supposed to post it but didnt, and considering the rumors of him to the D line gaining steam, here goes:
This story was relayed to me by a Mississippi high school hall of fame football coach. I served with and for this individual in the USAR for about 2 years in the 2011/12 timeframe. He was an O5 at the time and our section chief but now long since retired. I was a young O3. So we were on a warfighter exercise at FT Dix, NJ in January and were sitting around one afternoon talking about the 25 years he coached highschool football in Mississippi. He coached one of the large highschools in Jackson and had a long history of success including 2 state championships and a long list of kids that went on to play high level D1 ball in the SEC, some of them later to the NFL. At any rate we were talking about college ball and somehow Ed Orgeron came up. He laughed and said he met the guy one time at a coaching clinic and followed up by saying he had to be the dumbest SOB he'd ever met. Here's the story:
Most highschool coaches attend coaching clinics in the offseason (summer months) and many times classes are taught by college coaches on various football topics. So my buddy was at one in central Mississippi during the time that Orgeron was HC at Ole Pisser. The clinic was at a large in state highschool and classes were being taught in the gym; coaches in attendance were seated in student desks and there was an overhead projector in the front lighting up a large white screen. They had just completed a class, taken a 10 minute break and when they sat down again, the host instructor said he had a special guest set to teach the next course and it was going to be on defensive line techniques and strategies. Well, from a side door about that time, in walks Ed Orgeron. My buddy said he came in just as youd imagine, owning the room, grumbling in a happy but intense manner, big smile on his face though, shakes the hosts hand, then introduces himself as the HC of Ole Miss. He starts talking about back in the day when he was a "DQ" how he learned a whole lot about defensive strategy, line positions, development, etc and wanted to talk to them about it. He sees the overhead projector, turns and grabs a marker from a table nearby, but its a sharpie permanent, not a dry erase that was supposed to be used on the glass top of the projector. The host notices and tries to stop him but Orgeron just sort of grumbles and waves him off. My buddy said right then he knew this was gonna be an interesting next few minutes. With the host instructor sort of standing there unsure of what to do and looking a bit embarrased, Ogre starts grunting about defensive line formations, stunts, etc as he scrawls some Xs and Os on the projector glass with his black permanent marker. Nothing fancy mind you, just essentially hat on a hat positioning, then he looks up from the projector screen and starts yelling, "now you gotta punch em in da mouf!" over and over again, at first punching the air, then pounding the empty desk nearby the projector. After a minute or so he goes back to the projector and marks it up a bit more, and then follows with more of the same grunting and intensity that he is known for. All the while he keeps reminding everyone that he knows a lot about this stuff from his time as a defensive line coach and a "DQ." He talks for another 10-15 minutes about defense before starting to wrap up. As he is finishing up he tells all the coaches that he is more than willing to help anyone out any time and reminds them that he knows a lot because he used to be a "DQ." He'd probably used the term 7 or 8 times at this point so finally one of thea coaches raises his hand and asks him "coach, whats a DQ?" My buddy said Ogre had a bit of shocked expression, then replied, "Well god damn son, its a defensive cooordinatuhhhh." At that point, my friend and a lot of others nearly lost it but Ogre was so into it he didnt even notice. He then grabs the sharpie one last time, tells the coaches that he's going to leave his personal cell number for them and that they can contact him any time day or night. He starts writing down a number but when he finishes my buddy notices that it has an area code, a 3 digit prefix, but only 3 of the final four digits written on the projector screen. Before he can say anything someone else pipes up, "coach, hey coach, thats only 9 digits, you're missing a digit on your phone number." Orgeron looks at the glass top for a second then mutters "damn" to himself, then looks at the coaches and says "ah hell, give em another zero", then adds a zero to the end of the number and walks out.
Caveats - im retelling this from memory from over 10 years ago so i probably left a few things out, but my buddy had me and 3 other guys absolutely rolling when he told it to us. Was some of the funnies stuff I'd ever heard.
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