What Happened With Ed Orgeron And Kennedy Polamalu?

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Are you surprised that neither Ed Orgeron nor Kennedy Polamalu ended up on the USC coaching staff? If neither was interested, then it would be no surprise and Polamalu recently was promoted to offensive coordinator at UCLA.

But before that promotion I heard Polamalu was interested. And I heard Orgeron placed calls to USC that was not returned. So it is surprising that both were rebuffed. Unless you consider each had a sticky departure. Polamalu was fired by Lane Kiffin and I’m told he was not given a chance to air his side to the administration. He and Orgeron had an argument in El Paso before the Sun Bowl. That made things difficult for him. Orgeron’s acrimonious departure is widely known.

69 thoughts on “What Happened With Ed Orgeron And Kennedy Polamalu?”

  1. sweeeeet scooopin’, woIfman!!

    and for any of you jive turkeys who DARE to doubt the woIfman’s veracity…..AW BLOW IT OUT!!

    #LaserAccurateJournalism

  2. Pola allegedly punched Kiffin for reneging on his promise to allow Pola to call plays. Isn’t this old news? Just happy he is now with the Bruins–his impact was immediate, turning Perkins into the leading rusher in the P12 in ’14, and a back-to-back 1K rusher. Also helped us land excellent backs in Starks, Jamabo, and Olunrunfumi.

    • Great RB coach…but as an OC? Guess both schools will find out how a first OC time pans out. I like our chances better with more supporting staff and more talent at the skill positions.

      • By “more supporting staff” you mean more family calling plays??

        #Justasking

      • You are correct: Big question mark on Pola’s in-game play calling chops. Would respectively disagree on staffing, but give the Trojans the edge right now on skill on WR–losing Duarte (on top and Payton and Fuller) hurt. QB edge to UCLA, RB edge to SC with loss of Perkins. Jones is a beast.

        • Well..the jury is definitely out on who has the better offensive staff. I really like the OL hire, retaining Tee with a promotion, and like bringing in Tyson Helton. Nepotism? Maybe but his brother has done well so far in each job he has taken.

          Do you not think losing Mazzone and Klemm will hurt? I thought they were highly regarded.

          • Yeah, no better recruiter on the college scene than Martin. Interestingly, both Martin and Polamalu are beloved by recruits and players, but can they step into the OC shoes? Will be exciting to see. Mazzone stagnated the offense with Rosen, in my opinion. Klemm is a great recruiter and hasn’t left–OL coach and run game coordinator.

          • How does it feel to keep a known cheater on your staff? I thought the little gutties were supposedly always above that stuff. Klemm not only cheated at ucla and was forced off the field, but Mora kept him on. Wow. No face cupping even needed. A new standard in Westwood I guess.

            Why should USC worry about Pola and Klemm? The Trojans would never let Pola actually call the plays in a million years (USC knows a lot about him, ya think) and we beat the heck out of Klemm’s O-liners last time USC crushed ucla.

            The Trojans already have some great runners who ran all over ucla and we didn’t need Pola to get them, so why would we need him now?

            I wish Pola the best. He’s part of a great Trojan legacy with Troy Polamalu and all, though Kennedy likes to hit the sauce too. I bet he never takes a swing at Mora. But that’s probably a duke out I’d pay to see.

          • How does it feel to offer that so called cheater TWICE THE MONEY he was making at UCLA…..yet he turned your lowly school down?

          • USC is loaded with dough, unlike you poor little gutties. You must be new here. Yet another little gutty screaming in all caps on a USC board. Always predictable.

          • Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit you got off a rap record. Take that garbage back Westwood with all your little softball,gymnastics and water polo titles!

          • From my observation, SC might have actually been better off with KP calling plays rather than LK and his Denny’s menu, no? And congrats, Jack, to the Trojans for winning one in the trenches against the Bruins–1-3 vs Mora and Klemm in that regard.

          • Klemm’s a cheater, so he fits in perfectly at ucla and as soon as we got off probation (that’s right), USC mauled ucla, like usual. 47-31. You’ll never catch us, no matter how hard you little gutties try. Congrats on beating USC with our hands tied behind our backs. My only question is, why couldn’t you accomplish anything else on the national stage? Because you never do. Winning 11 games for ucla in football is just a fairy tale. Wonder why?

          • Umm, SC lost to the ruins the previous 3 years. That would indicate they had “caught up” under Kiffin and Sark.

      • “FIRST TIME OC”? For once I agree with you rah rahs. Kennedy Polamalu was the OC at southern cal but stint at a sad school like southern cal doesn’t count!

        #southerncalbitesthebigoneagain

        • Yes, that’s right dingleberry. He did NOT call plays when he was the “Offensive Coordinator”. That’s why I said first time OC. It was and is clear Lane Kiffin was calling plays.

          Why bother commenting here if you hate SC so much? It’s baffling why someone would post on another team’s board just to rile themselves up.

        • Yes and he got in fight with Kiffin cause they wouldn’t let him call plays.
          #TrainingWheels

          • So not a “First time OC”? UCLA has a former OC from an 11 time national championship school and southern cal has an HC that used to be OC for an mid major program in Memphis?

  4. If either or both of these guys came back I would have been ok with the hires. But I am equally ok with not bringing them back. There have been plenty of opportunities to question, criticize and blame the higher ups for a lot of decisions, actions and lack of action they have been involved with. IMO , this is not one of those times. Each of thse coaches generate a lot of heat–but is far from unanimous. Lots of praise and lots of good riddance sentiments expressed.

  5. Say what you want about Ed Orgeron, and Kenny Polamalu , but they are well connected at all of the top high school football programs in Southern California, and are both great coaches. But weak insecure head coaches like Clay Helton rather risk job security, by surrounding himself with family and friends. And controlling athletic directors like Pat Haden, prefers to hire passive people he can push around . So let’s see how it all works out, come September.

    • Your points are well taken, but are either of these guys really DC/OC material? And I don’t think that we’ve lost any SoCal talent to LSU because of Orgeron, and we seem to have held our own with recruits coming out of Serra, Poly and even Kennedy’s alma mater, Mater Dei…..

        • Fred, I think our class will be solid. Whether is great or bad i think we both know it all comes down to coaching. I follow recruiting as much as the next guy, but I’m more worried about getting better during the spring. We do need DLineman, but let’s start working hard in the trenches.

          • Mark Dantonio of Michigan state rarely gets the blue chip player, but do you know why he was in the final four? It’s because his staff knows how to develop players, and Clay Helton needs to prove that he can. Because Lane Kiffen, and Steve Sarkisian get an “F” in that department.

          • Yep. We’ll always get our share of blue chippers. But developing them is what we’ve been missing.

          • USC recruits itself so we even had solid classes when Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett were head coaches.

          • Now it’s time to see if Helton can coach. He picked this staff, now they have to get the best out of these players.

    • Fred, not sure I agree with the assessment that Helton is weak and insecure. His in game coaching opens him up to question , but I haven’t seen anything that points to him being weak. I know the hiring of his brother has some people concerned/mad/frustrated. But many coaches bring on their brothers and those they have worked with before. I am going to give the coaching staff the benefit of the doubt–until the season starts. If they mess up, then let the criticism rain down upon them. And believe me, I want to be right and want you to be wrong.

  6. I don’t think they want Ed O coming back, and I 100 percent understand! What so many Trojan Alums don’t realize is that mr. Orgeron required a huge amount of babysitting. The guy was one step away from a major lawsuit so many times. With all the drama from the kiffin/sarksian era they could not afford to bring Ed O back.

    • Ed would have been a huge distraction to the program.. I am optimistic that this staff will win 10 games.. looking top to bottom vs Ucla’s staff.. USC staff is much better.. Winning cures all..

      • Ed would have been A HUGE distraction! We’ll see how good this staff is in the coming years, but I don’t have the optimism for USC that you do. One key secret weapon they have, imo, is Sam Darnold. I just have a gut feeling about this guy! I think he is a total winner! He may not have had the talent that josh Rosen had in high school, but I think Darnold has a better future. Late bloomer!

          • Ed Orgeron wants clay helton’s job! The last thing USC needs is one of their assistant coaches trying everything he can to get the head coach fired.

  7. Tee Martin is an Offensive Coordinator/Championship level Coach on the rise while also being the “best”
    recruiter in the Country !

    Only an “idiot” would have screwed this up !!

    Defensive Line Coach Kenechi Udeze is a “Rising” Star in the making, Ed “who ???

    Head Coach Heltons’ football intelligence is far ahead of the guess-ers !!!

    Look “forward”, not behind !

    First rule of European driving, what is behind you doesn’t matter…

    FightOn

  8. Let’s say Haden gives Coach O a 5 year contract and each of his assistants 2 year contracts 14 days after the 20-17 defeat of #4 Stanford and 7 days after the 47-29 defeat of Colorado. That would be 7 days before the UCLA game. I believe USC defeats UCLA. What happens next? With.Marcus Martin, Kevin Graf, Marquise Lee, George Uko, Dion Bailey, and Hayes Pullard staying on campus for a shot at the Championship, with RS SO Kessler, FR Cravens, JR Dawson, JR Tavai, RS JR Josh Shaw, RS SR Kennard,SO Leonard Williams, RS SO Jav Allen, FR Justun Davis, SO Agholor, Telfer and Gamble all returning for the 2014 season, I believe Coach O’s USC Trojans would be in the hunt for the 2014 NCAA BCS CHAMPIONSHIP. One more requirement, reassign Helton to waterboy and hire Ted Tedford to Coordinate the Offense and Coach the QB’s. IMHO, i am convinced that Haden leaked out the Sark hire the day after the Colorado victory….a real bummer…. .

    • Pat Haden would rather SC become like Northwestern so he can brag about “winning the right way” at his lib social gatherings..

  9. Scott we all realize part of being a newspaper columnist delves into ‘hearsay’ and you are to be commended in keeping enough topics, even the most spurious, that keep things from getting stale and plain.

    Look a page has been turned here – no more connections to ‘PC’ i.e. his staff, his assistants, etc.. It is a new day here.

    Did you hear your audio equivalent – Petros Papadakis – doing his own ‘gossip’ about ‘PC’ around 3:20 pm today on 570 AM, having plastic surgery and when pressed by Matt Smith jumped to hilarity.

    It is amusing but both of you serve nothing.but fill time.

  10. Jovanovic is useless on defense. Sorry I hate ragging on a kid, but it’s an automatic lay up going up against him down low.

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