Ed Orgeron Grieving With His Nation, Players Over George Floyd's Death: 'It's Terrible'

Over the last few days, Ed Orgeron’s phone buzzed more than normal. For Orgeron, one of the nation’s elite college football recruiters and the head coach of the reigning national champion LSU Tigers, an active phone isn’t something new. But this was different. Messages flooded in from his former players reacting to a nationwide upheaval over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died May 25 while pinned between concrete and the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

“My players and former players are hurting, and they let me know they’re hurting,” Orgeron says in an interview Tuesday with Sports Illustrated.