Long before Ed Orgeron was let go as the head coach at LSU, he had made a name for himself as one of college football's best, and most relentless recruiters.
Today, on the Dan Patrick Show, Orgeron was asked about one recruit that broke his heart, and the name he dropped was Adrian Peterson.
While working at USC under Pete Carroll, Orgeron was tasked with recruiting Peterson, who was the nation's top overall prospect and a five-star recruit coming out of a Texas high school in 2004.
The race for Peterson largely came down to USC and Oklahoma, so Carroll and coach O took a trip to Texas to visit with Peterson and his family.
The deciding factor for Peterson though was a bit different. When asked what it would take to get him to come to USC, Peterson shared that Oklahoma's Bob Stoops was the only coach that had gone to the prison his dad was serving time in. Carroll and Orgeron tried to visit, but were ultimately not let in, the story goes.
Where Mr. Peterson was incarcerated, he would be able to catch Adrian's games on TV if he went to Oklahoma. That was really important to Adrian.
To most coaches, that would be too much to overcome.
Not Orgeron. He shares that he actually looked into having Mr. Peterson transferred to a facility out in LA.
Just before the Peterson story in the clip, Orgeron shared another story from his time as the head coach at Ole Miss of an unnamed recruit they were closing in on, but couldn't get in touch with. After rival Mississippi State visited the kid, it turned out the player had been hiding in the back room of a church until he could sign, and after hiding out it should come as no surprise he didn't choose Ole Miss.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Orgeron needs to put some of these kinds of stories from his recruiting experience over the years into a book and it would be a best seller...easy.
Hear the full story, as well as Orgeron's reasoning for taking a year away from football, in the clip.