Ed Orgeron

When it comes to building a championship football program, there’s none better than former LSU Head Coach Ed Orgeron. A driven leader with a vision on how to achieve success, Orgeron needed only three seasons to fulfill a pledge he made at his introductory press conference on Nov. 26, 2016, when he vowed to “build a championship program at LSU.”

Orgeron did just that in 2019, earning numerous National Coach of the Year honors on his way to leading LSU to the most dominant season in college football history with a 15-0 record and the CFP National Championship.

But Orgeron’s definition of a championship program goes much farther than winning championships on the football field. It’s also about developing young men, both on and off the field; it’s about fielding a team of high-character players that are determined to compete at the highest level on the field, while pursuing an education off the field; it’s about players focused on the success of the team, not individual awards; it’s about players doing the right thing, all of the time. It’s known as the LSU Standard of Performance, not just on Saturday nights during the fall, but year-round.

And with that mentality, which starts at the top with Orgeron – a coach who never takes credit for his team’s success, but instead praises his staff and his players – LSU stormed its way to the 2019 national title, winning 12 of 15 games by double-figures and beating seven Top-10 opponents along the way. LSU had five wins over teams that finished the 2019 season ranked in the Top 10.