OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss Athletics Director Pete Boone announced here Saturday at noon that Ed Orgeron, who has served as head football coach of the Rebels for the last three years, is not being retained.

“Ed Orgeron will not be returning as head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels,” Boone announced at the press conference.  “Chancellor (Robert) Khayat and I met with Coach Orgeron this morning.  We thanked him for his tremendous work ethic, the energy and the commitment he gave Ole Miss.

“Coach Orgeron has made strides in many areas as a head coach, but after a total assessment of the year, we believe the program needs to move in a different direction to accomplish the goals of Ole Miss football.”

Boone said the search for a new head football coach will begin immediately.

“We are going to follow a process similar to the one used to hire our men’s basketball coach,” Boone said.  “We believe this will allow us to hire the best person to lead the Ole Miss football program.”

Orgeron, who was named the 35th head football coach in the history of The University of Mississippi on December 16, 2004, when he succeeded David Cutcliffe, was 10-25 overall in his three years of directing the Rebels.  Inside the Southeastern Conference, Ole Miss was 3-21. The Ole Miss position was his first as a head coach.  

Prior to being named head coach at Ole Miss, Orgeron served the previous seven seasons as defensive line coach at the University of Southern California where he played a key role in Pete Carroll’s Trojans winning national championships in 2003 and 2004.   He joined the USC staff in January of 1998, took on the added responsibility of recruiting coordinator for the Trojans in 2001, and was then named assistant head coach in 2003. 

The 2007 season was Orgeron’s 23rd in coaching.  Prior to joining the USC staff, he was  defensive line coach at Syracuse for three seasons (1995-97), having joined the Orangemen from Nicholls State, where he was the linebackers coach in 1994. He was also the defensive line coach at Miami for four seasons (1989-92) and in 1988 was a graduate assistant at Miami.

Orgeron got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Northwestern (La.) State, his alma mater, in 1984 and was also a graduate assistant at McNeese State in 1985, working with the defensive line at both schools.  He then served as an assistant strength coach at Arkansas for two years (1986-87) as the Razorbacks participated in the 1987 Orange Bowl and 1987 Liberty Bowl. Orgeron worked in private business in 1993.