Ed Orgeron tells amazing story about how he closed on recruits at USC

Former LSU head coach Ed Orgeron has always been a tough recruiter. It’s one of the qualities that made him such a successful assistant and how he built his 2019 national championship team.

In an interview on the Dan Patrick Show this week, Orgeron shared insight about how he would close the deal with recruits back in his time with the USC Trojans.

“Here’s the deal, Manhattan Beach, Sunday morning,” Orgeron said. “Me and Pete would bring them down to the Strand, breakfast in the Strand, overlooking the beach. And then I would take a personal walk, with each recruit, down the pier and have a little talk with them.

“And I’d say, ‘If you come to USC, you can be like, there’s Kobe Bryant’s house, there’s this movie star’s house, this movie star’s house.’ Now, I don’t know if they lived there, but it damn sounded good.”

After a good laugh, Patrick asked Orgeron whether or not he would lie to recruits in the process of winning them over.

“Basically I do a good job of listening to what they want,” Orgeron said. “They’ll tell you. And then you can deliver what they want.”

Orgeron tells crazy Adrian Peterson recruiting story

Ed Orgeron was one of many coaches in pursuit of Adrian Peterson in 2004. The former USC assistant recounted a story on the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday from when he was on the recruiting trail for the future Hall of Famer.

“We go down to see Adrian, me and Pete,” Orgeron recalled. “His mother ran track. Adrian and I had a great relationship. I felt like he and I were very tight. One time, he said ‘Coach I want you to follow me.’ We went 30 miles and stopped in this little country store. He bought a little gingerbread cookie — I couldn’t buy it for him — for supper. Then we went to a basketball game. We sat in the gym and I said, ‘What are we doing?’ He said, ‘See that guard right there? I’ve got to play him next week. I came to scout him.’

“I asked him, ‘What is the key to get you here at USC?’ He said, ‘Coach, my dad is incarcerated and Bob Stoops went to see him’. Me and Pete Carrol tried to go see him but they wouldn’t let us see him. Adrian said, ‘May dad will be able to watch my games where he’s at if I go to Oklahoma.’ I tried to get the guy transferred to Los Angeles. I competed. Couldn’t get it done, but I competed.”

Peterson went on to star at Oklahoma from 2004-06. He set a Sooners freshman record after rushing for 1,925 yards and 15 touchdowns during his first season in Norman. Following a three-year stint with OU, he was selected seventh overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2007 NFL draft.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.