November 25, 2007

Ole Miss fires Ed Orgeron

Weeks after saying that Mississippi head coach Ed Orgeron was going to have five to six years to build the Rebels football program, Ole Miss AD Pete Boone fired the embattled coach yesterday.

"I told him that the chasm had grown too deep to go forward into next year," Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone said Saturday. "He understood that, accepted it and was as strong a man as you can imagine Coach O being. It was a very gentlemanly conversation that we had."

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"My endorsement several weeks ago was with anticipation that we would finish on a strong note," Boone said. "Coach O and I both thought we would. But that did not happen."

The firing came as a shock to many, despite Oregeron's winless season in SEC play. Coach O had three seasons at Ole Miss and -- despite some mid-level recruiting classes -- had the Rebels competitive in many of their games. I personally thought both the Auburn and Georgia coaches owed Ole Miss a debt of gratitude this season, for example, for exposing several scheme vulnerabilities of the Florida Gators.

Oregeron seemed to have more trouble away from the field during his stint at Ole Miss, with questions surrounding the decisions to play/not play QB Brent Schaeffer and several off-the-field discipline incidents, including hotel-gate.

Orgeron will get 75 percent of his $900,000 salary through 2009 as per his contract, minus whatever he makes in his next job.

There's some thought that Oregeron could end up back as Southern Cal as an assistant, given his relationship with Pete Carroll and his success in recruiting for the Trojans.