The college football season may be over, but that certainly doesn’t mean there isn’t still news coming out of the sport. In fact, news has been pretty consistent out of the college football world. Let’s take a look at some of the news from around the country this last week.
Orgeron Gets New Contract
Sometimes it pays to win … literally. Ed Orgeron, LSU’s head coach, was rewarded with a sizable contract extension after winning this year’s national championship.
Orgeron has agreed to a six-year contract extension that is worth over $42 million. This last season Orgeron made just $4 million. While $4 million is certainly a nice payday to coach a sport, it ranked him as just the ninth-highest paid coach in his own conference. With the new extension, he is now one of the highest-paid coaches in the nation.
From a production standpoint, it is for good reason. Orgeron is 40-9 overall at LSU, and this season the Tigers had a remarkable season, going 15-0. The season was finalized with a 42-25 drumming of the Clemson Tigers to win it all.
With senior quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow departing, Orgeron will have some work to do to repeat as national champion. He’s had nine starters leave for the NFL and even lost some of his coaching staff.
His passing game coordinator (Joe Brady) has left for the pro ranks in Carolina, and his defensive coordinator (Dave Aranda) will be taking over at Baylor as its new head coach. Orgeron definitely has work to do, but for now, he can certainly enjoy the fruits of his labor with this new contract.
Boise State Suing Its Own Conference
Boise State and the Mountain West Conference are currently at odds, and it has led to a lawsuit by Boise State over a new television contract. Back in 2012, Boise State was considering leaving the conference for the Big East. As part of the agreement to stay, Boise State would receive a bonus ($1.8 million) on top of the equal shares that the conference teams received from the conference’s television deal.
The problem is that the conference has signed a new television deal and is reportedly ignoring many of the agreements that were made with Boise State. This is where the lawsuit comes in, as Boise State is claiming that its staying in the conference was based on these agreed-upon terms, and now the conference is breaking those terms.
More than likely, this will result in some type of agreement between Boise State and the conference; however, it is certainly something worth monitoring moving forward.
King Heads To Miami; Williams Leaves
Miami, following another disappointing season, has landed a new quarterback for next season. The Hurricanes will welcome former Houston quarterback, D’Eriq King, as their new starter.
King played just four games this season before deciding to take the rest of the season off as a redshirt to give him another year of eligibility. In 2018 with Houston, King played in 11 games, throwing for 2,982 yards, 36 touchdowns and just six interceptions.
He also rushed 111 times for 674 yards and another 14 touchdowns. If he is able to show near as much skill, Miami will have gotten a huge boost under center.
With King transferring to Miami, quarterback Jarren Williams has decided to leave the Hurricanes. Last season, Williams started 10 games and showed signs of promise, but also signs of inconsistency, leading the Hurricanes to bring in King.
On the season, Williams went 169 for 276 for 2,187 yards, 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions. With multiple years of eligibility left, there may be a college that takes a flyer on Williams to try to build on his potential as a quarterback.
Tennessee Gets Receiver From Transfer Portal
Tennessee will be getting a bit of a boost this upcoming season as former USC wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. will be joining the Volunteers as a graduate transfer. This season with USC, Jones had just six receptions for 35 yards over 11 games.
Where Jones was a bigger asset, though, was that he returned kicks for USC. In 11 games, he had 29 returns for 704 yards and a touchdown. Given his status as a graduate transfer, Jones will be able to play immediately.
Coordinator Becomes Highest-Paid Assistant
Defensive coordinator Kevin Steele will be sticking with Auburn and will be paid heftily to stay. Steele was locked up through 2022 and will be paid a whopping $2.5 million per season to do so.
Steele was already making good money at around $1.9 million per year, but with this raise, he now becomes the highest-paid assistant coach in the nation.
Baylor Brings In Fedora
Sticking with the topic of assistant coaches, Baylor is planning to bring in former North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora as its new offensive coordinator. Fedora, who took last season off after having coached at North Carolina, now joins new coach Dave Aranda’s staff.
Fedora is somewhat familiar with Baylor, as he coached there in the 1990s as their receivers, tight ends and running backs coach.
