UNLV has lofty aims for their next football coach.
The Rebels recently fired bead coach Marcus Arroyo after three dismal seasons with the team. They’re hoping to replace him with someone who knows how to win. A report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal on potential candidates featured a big name: former LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron.
Andy Yamashita reported, “Ed Orgeron, who won a national championship at Louisiana State, and Chris Petersen, who won a Mountain West title at Boise State, might be in the running to replace Marcus Arroyo as UNLV football coach, sources tell the Review-Journal.”
The report also listed Kevin Sumlin and Mike Stoops as potential names for the job. Though, the suggestion of Petersen was refuted by Bruce Feldman.
There is no truth to the report that former Washington and Boise State head coach Chris Petersen is involved in the UNLV coaching search or is a real candidate for that vacancy, per source.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 5, 2022
Orgeron led the LSU Tigers to a College Football Playoff Championship in 2019. The Tigers had a huge array of talent and throttled Oklahoma and Clemson en route to the title. Things quickly fell apart after though. And following a scandal, Orgeron and LSU had a mutual parting of ways last year.
It would probably be a messy attempt to bring Orgeron in after how it concluded in Baton Rouge. But when has that ever stopped anyone in college football from making a hire?
UPDATE (6:15 p.m. ET): Bruce Feldman has also refuted this report that Orgeron is a name to watch.
Just spoke to Ed Orgeron. He’s not involved in the UNLV coaching search nor has heard from anyone there, and he told me he has no interest in the job.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) December 5, 2022