Ed Orgeron wanted a rope.
In late September 2013, Orgeron had been named interim coach at USC, following the college’s notorious middle-of-the-night firing of Lane Kiffin on the tarmac at LAX. Orgeron had been a head coach at Ole Miss, and now had one other alternative, at a program he cherished. He wrote down a number of issues he needed to do in working the USC program.
First, he borrowed an train from former Trojans coach Pete Carroll, and obtained a rope from the fireplace division. He assembled everybody concerned in this system — gamers, coaches, help employees, even directors — and paired up teams for tug-of-war: working backs towards linebackers, offensive line towards defensive position, and so forth.
“I received the teaching employees to tug towards the administration, and I let the rattling administration win,” Orgeron advised ESPN. “If I knew what [would happen] at USC, I might have pulled a bit tougher.”
His fundamental level was that neither facet actually gained an edge when pulling in reverse instructions.
“I mentioned, ‘I would like all people on this room — and there is lots of people — get on the identical facet of the rope, and let’s pull,'” Orgeron mentioned. “That despatched a message: One group, one heartbeat. When a firing occurs, one thing is segmented, and you have to attempt to piece it collectively as a lot as you’ll be able to.”
Orgeron led USC to a 6-2 end that fall however wasn’t retained. When he was named LSU’s interim coach in early 2016, he as soon as once more did the tug-of-war train. After going 5-2 that fall, Orgeron had the interim tag eliminated. Three years later, his LSU squad gained the nationwide championship.
Interim coaches inherit vastly completely different conditions at completely different factors within the calendar, however they share a mission: to information a ship jostled by change by means of uneven waters.
“Once you grow to be the interim head coach, it is by no means a great factor,” mentioned Tim Skipper, appointed UCLA’s interim coach in September after spending your complete 2024 season as Fresno State’s interim. “It is by no means a great time.”
Interims should information groups by means of a spread of video games, whereas coping with a spread of feelings. Amid unsure futures for each gamers and coaches, interims make selections for the second. Some have main success, like Orgeron, and find yourself getting the tag eliminated. Others absolutely know they’re simply placeholders and attempt to hold issues from falling aside till resolutions are reached.
The 2025 season has positioned a highlight on interim coaches, as jobs have opened in each main convention forward of a wild teaching cycle. We have already seen one sport that includes opposing interim coaches. As most seasons wrap up this week, ESPN spoke with present and former interim coaches and recognized a number of the key issues to do, and keep away from, as they navigate a bumpy panorama.
The preliminary transition
Some coach firings are anticipated for weeks or months, whereas others, like Penn State’s ouster of James Franklin after a three-game shedding streak this fall, are jarring. However no matter circumstances encompass the teaching change, interims are thrust in entrance of groups crammed with emotion.
“When that occurred on Sunday, it was like a funeral,” mentioned Oregon State interim coach Robb Akey, named to his function after the college fired Trent Bray on Oct. 12. “We had to have the ability to pull the fellows up and get them transferring on.”
The timing of the modifications additionally components in for interims. Each Virginia Tech and UCLA fired their coaches solely three video games into this season.
“That is a very long time to attempt to maintain a group collectively,” mentioned Philip Montgomery, appointed to be Virginia Tech’s interim coach from his offensive coordinator function Sept. 14. “Most of those guys had been recruited by Brent and signed on for that a part of it. Once you rip that away from them, then rapidly, there’s loads of feelings, and also you’re making an attempt to deal with all of that and making an attempt to in some way hold them targeted, hold them jelled collectively, and for us, discover a strategy to go win video games and have a productive season.”
After Pry’s firing, Montgomery relied on his eight-year tenure as Tulsa’s head coach. He addressed the group, went over normal pointers and gave gamers the platform to vent.
“When you laid [those guidelines] down, you’ll be able to’t shuttle with it,” he mentioned. “It is received to be steadfast.”
Skipper did not have the identical expertise to lean on, however he had been an interim the 12 months earlier than at Fresno State, taking up in July when Jeff Tedford stepped down and guiding the group to a 6-7 document. Skipper had performed at Fresno State and was in his second stint as a Bulldogs assistant.
He arrived at UCLA this summer season as particular assistant to educate DeShaun Foster. Upon being named interim coach after Foster’s firing, Skipper had a plan from what he had achieved at Fresno State, however he barely knew the UCLA group. Since UCLA had an open week, Skipper held a mini coaching camp. He met individually with gamers and had them clear and set up the locker room.
“We had been oh-fer,” Skipper mentioned, referring to the group’s 0-3 document. “We simply wanted a win.”
He then took the entire group bowling, an exercise often reserved for the preseason or bowl sport prep, and ensured each lane had a mixture of gamers from completely different place teams.
“They simply bowled their ass off and talked s— and had fun,” Skipper mentioned. “It was one other alternative to get them smiling.”
Managing the teaching employees
When colleges hearth head coaches, they often retain the remainder of the employees to complete out the season. The remaining coaches face unsure futures. Until the following everlasting coach retains them on, they will be in search of recent begins.
“All of us go house and you have wives that wish to know the place we will stay and the place we will eat and the way the payments are going to receives a commission,” Akey mentioned. “We’re all within the coaches’ portal, too. It is a distinctive state of affairs that you simply would not want on anyone. You would not want it on an enemy.”
Interim coaches say the hot button is not letting the anxiousness seep into this system’s every day operation.
“What to keep away from is … to grow to be these unbiased contractors that do our personal factor, our personal manner,” LSU interim coach Frank Wilson mentioned. “It is not having letdowns and having self-pity.”
Interim coaches virtually all the time come from inside the current employees. Sooner or later, they’re sitting amongst their assistant friends; the following, they’re on the head of the desk.
“It’s essential take cost of the employees and make them accountable and be the top coach, however do not be a butthole,” Orgeron mentioned. “Do not come throughout too exhausting as a result of the day earlier than, you had been an assistant with these guys.”
After firing Troy Taylor in late March, Stanford normal supervisor Andrew Luck introduced in Frank Reich, who coached Luck within the NFL, to guide this system. Reich had extra time to organize for an interim season — he mentioned he by no means would have taken the job another manner — but additionally did not know the gamers or assistant coaches when he arrived.
“I lean on them quite a bit,” Reich mentioned of the assistants he inherited at Stanford. “I ask them what they assume. Give me your perspective. Give me the context and historical past of this participant, this quotation. That is an enormous a part of it.”
Interim coaches typically need to shuffle employees obligations, together with playcalling. Montgomery saved offensive playcalling duties at Virginia Tech whereas additionally serving as head coach, simply as he had achieved at Tulsa. Arkansas did the identical factor when offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino was elevated to interim coach. Montgomery noticed worth in holding Pry’s employees collectively, noting the steadiness would assist the gamers.
Oregon State fired its particular groups coordinator shortly earlier than it did Bray, who additionally served because the group’s defensive playcaller. When Akey turned the Beavers’ interim coach, he needed to kind out obligations.
Skipper had an much more chaotic state of affairs at UCLA, the place defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe parted methods with the college after Foster’s firing. Then, after Skipper’s first sport as interim, offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri additionally parted methods with UCLA. Skipper had defensive coordinator expertise however needed no a part of the function, given the whole lot on his plate.
He requested Kevin Coyle, who had been Skipper’s defensive coordinator when he performed, to make a midseason transfer from Syracuse and lead the protection. Skipper then regarded internally and had Jerry Neuheisel, the 33-year-old tight ends coach who performed quarterback at UCLA and had spent virtually his whole profession there, to grow to be offensive coordinator. They had been each coach’s children — Neuheisel’s father, Rick, coached UCLA from 2008 to 2011 — and Jerry was among the many first employees members Skipper received to know after he arrived.
“I used to be all the time like, ‘It is a sensible dude, he is aware of ball, he will be a coordinator sooner or later,’ simply me saying that to myself,” Skipper mentioned. “And it simply labored out that I had the chance to rent him and we made it occur.”
Recruiting and the longer term roster
As a longtime assistant after which Ole Miss’ head coach, Orgeron constructed a popularity as a ravenous recruiter. So what did he do when he turned interim coach at USC after which LSU?
“I recruited even tougher,” he mentioned.
He held recruiting “energy hours” each Monday with calls to prospects and recruiting conferences on Friday mornings and evenings. On Saturdays earlier than video games, Orgeron and the employees would collect, placed on “Faculty GameDay,” eat breakfast and FaceTime recruits, asking about their highschool video games the evening earlier than.
Orgeron’s pitch?
“That is USC, that is LSU,” he advised the gamers. “Many of the issues that you’re dedicated to or the issues that you simply cherished about it are all the time going to be right here. They’ll make the precise alternative, and they are going to get a coach that helps us win a championship. Stick with us, keep to the top, do not change now, let’s examine what occurs.”
Orgeron made positive by no means to mislead recruits. He did not inform them he could be the following coach, despite the fact that he needed to be.
The distinction now from Orgeron’s two interim stints is that coaches additionally should monitor their very own roster. Till a latest rule change, gamers had been in a position to enter the switch portal within the first 30 days after a head teaching change. Skipper’s fundamental purpose when named interim at Fresno State and UCLA was to don’t have any gamers enter the portal. He additionally did not let up in contacting UCLA’s dedicated recruits and people contemplating this system.
“We’re making an attempt to nonetheless unfold the great phrase about UCLA soccer, UCLA as a college, as an educational establishment, all of that,” Skipper mentioned. “So we’re working to the top, ’til they inform us to go away.”
Interim coaches have limits in recruiting, although. They usually aren’t providing scholarships, as these selections finally fall on the everlasting head coaches. Reich, who is aware of he is achieved at Stanford following the season, has deferred most questions in regards to the group’s future to Luck.
Montgomery has spent most of his recruiting vitality on the prospects who initially dedicated to Virginia Tech.
“Most of these guys are saying, ‘Hey, I am dedicated however I am open. I wish to see what occurs and who they rent and what they are going to do, what is the subsequent transfer going to be earlier than I absolutely say, hey, I am again in one hundred pc once more,'” Montgomery mentioned.
Managing the top of seasons
There’s nothing tidy in regards to the finish of the faculty soccer common season. Even when there hasn’t been a training change, groups are scrambling to complete recruiting. Assistant coaches are sometimes transferring jobs. Gamers are serious about what’s subsequent.
Ending the season with an interim coach solely provides to the chaos.
This week, Montgomery will lead Virginia Tech into its rivalry sport at No. 19 Virginia, however the Hokies final week employed their new coach in Franklin, who was out of labor for barely a month. Franklin is contacting recruits and placing collectively his employees, whereas letting the present group end out 2025.
John Thompson twice was named Arkansas State’s interim coach for bowl video games, as the college went by means of three consecutive one-year coaches (Hugh Freeze, Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin). When Malzahn left for Auburn in early December 2012, he took a number of employees members. Eight days later, Arkansas State employed Harsin. Thompson, in the meantime, was not sure of his future and charged with guiding the group by means of the GoDaddy.com Bowl.
“You’ve got received coaches going in every single place, who’s going with this group, who’s going with that group?” Thompson mentioned. “That was probably the most troublesome factor. You’ve got received guys which are making an attempt to get a job, some that have already got taken one other job, however they’re nonetheless there with you.”
After his hiring, Harsin started sitting in Thompson’s conferences.
“By no means mentioned a phrase,” Thompson mentioned. “I carried out the employees conferences, carried out follow, did the whole lot, and he simply sat there, you already know? And he ended up hiring me [as an assistant], however that was sort of a wierd deal. I mentioned, ‘I am not going to pay him any consideration,’ however it was uncomfortable.”
The turbulent few weeks made wins in each bowl video games Thompson coached that a lot sweeter. He “completely cherished” teaching each Arkansas State groups, which featured gamers who had been by means of 5 coaches in 5 years, however by no means let the fixed flux overwhelm their objectives.
Some interim coach tales have blissful endings, like Orgeron getting the LSU job two days after main the group to a win towards Texas A&M, or Kent State final month eradicating the interim tag from Mark Carney. Most of the time, although, interims usually are not promoted nor retained, as packages reboot with new leaders.
They’re short-term stewards, teaching very a lot for the second, and making an attempt to maximise the expertise for gamers.
“The identify ‘Coach,’ the label ‘Coach’ means one thing, proper?” Akey mentioned. “We’re presupposed to be rising younger guys up. We’re presupposed to be serving to them develop. And, effectively, this is the chance to do it, since you received hit with a bunch of adversity, and it should occur to you in life.”