Fortuna Files: Where do new coaching searches stand?
Intel on UCLA and Virginia Tech. Plus, how can Notre Dame recover from its 0-2 start?
News and notes from around the country after working the phones all week:
1. A name to watch for UCLA is Ed Orgeron. The former national title-winning coach told Pardon My Take this summer that he has the “itch” to coach again. He knows L.A. inside and out thanks to his multiple stints at USC. And he is both available and, unlike several potential candidates, legitimately interested in leading the Bruins, per a source with knowledge of the situation.
2. The benefit of hiring Orgeron now is to get a head-start on building out a modern-day front office and long-term plan to rebuild the UCLA program. For all of his coaching faults, Deshaun Foster was put in an extremely difficult situation by taking over the Bruins in February of 2024. He had no head-coaching experience, had very little to work with and was entering Year 1 of the Big Ten era with a difficult schedule.
3. Orgeron took a lot of heat on the way out of LSU, but he went 11-11 with the Tigers during his last two seasons, the first of which came in an SEC-only schedule during the pandemic-shortened season. His 2019 national title team is on the short list of greatest college football teams ever. And there is an argument to be made that his eight-game interim stint at USC in 2013 remains the greatest coaching performance by anyone on the Trojans’ sidelines since the Pete Carroll era. (USC went 6-2 under Coach O.)