When LSU football hired Brian Kelly in 2021, it marked a steep depature from previous head coach Ed Orgeron. Orgeron was a Louisiana man through and through. He embodied the state. Kelly, a Massachusetts native, was coming from Notre Dame and had never coached in the South. There were questions about Kelly’s “cultural fit.”
The culture talk only got louder when, not long after being hired, Kelly slipped into a faux southern accent when addressing LSU fans at a basketball game. The viral clip saw Kelly put a little twang on his pronunciation of family.
Those who said Kelly wouldn’t fit in turned out to be right. LSU found brief success in 2022, winning the SEC West, but that was LSU’s ceiling under Kelly. LSU fired Kelly after eight games in 2025, eventually hiring Lane Kiffin.
And now, Orgeron is back, too. LSU finalized a deal to give Orgeron a spot on Kiffin’s first LSU staff, bringing the national title-winning coach back to Baton Rouge.
A couple of days before Orgeron’s return, he went on Pardon My Take, where he talked about Kelly’s basketball game flop.
Coach O knew it was over for Brian Kelly the moment he talked in a fake accent https://t.co/LhpZKhLAkYpic.twitter.com/aPSkK4fWwu
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) May 22, 2026
Orgeron was asked what he thought of Kelly’s accent, and Orgeron simply said, “It’s over. He ain’t got a chance.”
“Not only the fans see it, the players see it,” Orgeron said, “One of the things, you guys know this man, players gotta trust you. You gotta be who you are. You try to be somebody you ain’t they gonna smell it right away.”
Orgeron’s take is no surprise. Despite the shortcomings at the end of Orgeron’s head coaching tenure, his love for the place never dwindled.
This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: LSU’s Ed Orgeron takes swipe at Brian Kelly over fake accent
