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LSU announced that Ed Orgeron will get an assist from another former USC head coach John Robinson this upcoming season, as a senior consultant to the head coach.
“I want to welcome Coach Robinson and his wife Miss Beverly to the LSU Family,” Orgeron said. “Coach has been a great friend and mentor to me and he will be a very valuable resource for us in growing our championship culture at LSU.”
Robinson will assist Orgeron as a consultant to daily planning of practice, personnel and game planning.
Robinson coached USC from 1976-82, winning a national title and coaching two Heisman Trophy winners before trying out the NFL. He returned to Troy in the 90s and still managed to win two more PAC-12 titles before things fizzled out in 1996. Robinson and Orgeron’s times at USC did not overlap, as Orgeron arrived in the Paul Hackett years in the late 90s, but given his legendary status, he was almost certainly still around the program at times, especially later on in the Carroll Era. Robinson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2009.
Overall, it seems a bit odd to add an 83-year-old coach to the program, but Robinson’s wife is an LSU alum, and I certainly don’t doubt he has some insight into things like dealing with significant expectations; his 1979 USC squad, which went on to win the national championship, entered the season ranked No. 1 and is largely considered one of the greatest collections of talent ever assembled.
It’s not some sort of game-changer for a program, but when you have the opportunity to add any coach that might be able to help, it’s never a bad idea.
At least maybe somebody can get Robinson to admit that the facemask call against LSU in ‘79 was bullshit.