Flip the Script. Ed Orgeron

 

 

Flip the Script.   Ed Orgeron with Bruce Feldman.

Lessons Learned on the Road to a Championship. 

 

Sometimes in life we get one chance to make our way in the world or prove we have what it takes to succeed.   However, Ed Orgeron, the author of this book, was fortunate to have a second chance to be a head coach at the major college level.    Flip the Script talks about his life and times, successes, failures and perseverance. 

Brought up in Southeast, Louisiana, Orgeron is a true Cajun.    He came from mostly humble beginnings but managed to work his way as a football player to the premier state school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  He used the game of football to forge a career when he finished his college eligibility taking on the role as a defensive coach at various schools.   Ultimately, the 1983 Northwestern State graduate lands a head coaching job by 2005 in the Southeastern conference.     Unfortunately for coach O this job (head coach at Mississippi) did not work out for him and he was summarily dismissed after year three.   

Coach O is open about his failure and lessons learned from the experiences as coach on the field and an adult off the field.    The book is strong in detailing those lessons and discussing how he would change his ways if and when given another shot leading a program.   One example was how he vowed to treat his players better, more like a parent, and his assistants with more respect and patience.   Another lesson incorporated was how he would run practices during the season by creating a coordinated theme for each day of the week. 

After plugging away for a season in the NFL and another in the SEC, Orgeron returns to USC in 2010. He nearly lands a coveted head coaching job as USC, after taking over as the interim leader, but it falls through for him.    Plenty is explained of the personal devastation experienced in that transaction. After taking some time to himself, the Cajun ultimately reaches full cycle by landing on the LSU staff as a defensive line coach.     As fate would have it, coach O would once again be named an interim coach after the head coach was fired in the middle of the season.   This time, he was offered the heading coaching job at the school, LSU, and took on the challenge of building them back to a conference and national powerhouse program. 

In his book, co-authored by the very accomplished Bruce Feldman, coach O refers to the mentoring and guidance he received while working with ultra-successful head coach Pete Carroll.   Carroll was a stickler for keeping messages to players and coaches both positive and direct.    He also impacted the way Orgeron would use film of practices to help make decisions on player personnel matters.     A highlight of the book includes his willingness to change for the better and thus documents these turn of events.   

While critics questioned the promotion of Orgeron to head coach for the 2017 season, the tiger football program gradually started to flip their own script.   Landing a talented quarterback transfer buried on the Ohio State depth chart, the Bayou Bengals began to become a more cohesive team that learned to play together and for each other rather than, as one player asserted, only for their unit and themselves.   In 2019, the football fortunes of LSU come to a crescendo.   

The 2019 season for coach O and his team turned into quite the personal and collective triumph.    Lessons learned before coming back to where he started paid off in a super charged way.    In essence, Ed Orgeron was able to change his fortunes through perseverance, growth and flexibility in his coaching and leadership styles. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he landed at a school that attracted plenty of championship caliber players, too.   A career of personal and professional ups and downs gave coach O plenty of material to elaborate in the book.   Flip the Script is written by a football coach who often writes the way he talks.    This manuscript is probably not for the casual fan but if the reader can get past that it is an interesting journey and inspirational tale of turning failure into exultation.  

 

• You might like to read this book if you are fan of the author.
• You might like to read this book if you are a Louisiana State football fan.
• You might like to read this book if you are a college football fan.
• You might like to read this book if you enjoy reading about coaching and leadership strategies. 

Read more about the author on Twitter:   https://twitter.com/Coach_EdOrgeron