Could a familiar face be headed out to the desert? It's entirely possible, based on the rumor mill.
Former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron has been named as a potential candidate to take over the head coaching job at UNLV, according to report from the Las Vegas Review Journal over the weekend.
A follow-up report indicated that Orgeron told the Review Journal he was not a candidate, though these processes are far from transparent and things can change rapidly. Orgeron was one of several named in the process of replacing former head coach Marcus Arroyo, including Boise State's Mike Peterson, former Arizona coach Mike Stoops and former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin.
Sumlin is currently the coach and GM for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL.
Arroyo, formerly the offensive coordinator at Oregon was fired following his third season, which included a 5-7 record in a season that concluded with a win over in-state rival Nevada.
Orgeron, of course, was LSU's head coach from 2016-'21 and finished with an overall record of 51-20. He also engineered one of the most dominant seasons in college football history which ended in an unbeaten 15-0 season and the Tigers' first College Football Championship title. Orgeron's firing was announced midway through the 2021 season after back-to-back subpar campaigns, but he stayed on through the regular season before stepping away ahead of the team's bowl game.
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Orgeron departed LSU with a lucrative buyout package that limited his immediate options for where he could potentially go next as a coach, and taking another head coaching job could affect compensation, as it did for former head coach Les Miles when he signed on to be the head coach at Kansas in the 2019 season.
The Tigers have moved on successfully with Brian Kelly at the helm. Kelly departed his longtime coaching home of Notre Dame to take over the program in Baton Rouge, and successfully led the team to an SEC West title, though it ended with a thud in a 50-30 SEC Championship loss to top-ranked Georgia.
For the full report from the Review-Journal, click here.
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