Cleveland on Bebe

Inside sources say the Clarion Ledger got a hold of an article on this very own Blog and were worried about Michael Wallace and the perception Ole Miss fans had of the Clarion Ledger. In response, Rick Cleveland wrote a good column today on Coach O, known by his friends as Bebe. I was in attendance at the Cutcliffe firing press conference, and Cleveland asked a question that really made ChancellorKhayat mad and made him leave the podium to get his composure back. This is Cleveland's way of making up to his old friend.

Until two weeks ago, I had never heard of Ed Orgeron. Until Thursday, I had never met him.First impressions?If Ole Miss wanted someone with a different approach, a different personality than David Cutcliffe, the Rebels got him.Rick Cleveland Cutcliffe's background is on the offensive side of the ball; Orgeron's is on the defensive side. Cutcliffe is such a low-key guy fans often criticized his stoicism; Orgeron is intense and expressive. Indeed, my guess is we'll never have to guess what Orgeron is thinking.And while Cutcliffe is soft-spoken, we will never strain to hear Orgeron, whose voice carries, deep and gravelly with a decidedly Cajun accent.Pete Boone said he wanted a detailed plan for the future from David Cutcliffe, but that Cutcliffe wouldn't provide him one. Orgeron showed up at his first interview with a detailed, 10-page plan.So will Orgeron — or Coach O as he said he prefers to be called — succeed? Can he achieve what Pete Boone and Robert Khayat desire, which is to take the Rebels to the SEC Championship and BCS bowls?For Ole Miss, that's the multi-million dollar question, and the answer, for any of us, is just a guess.Know this: Orgeron believes he can. Asked if it is realistic for Ole Miss to compete annually for such prizes, he replied, "There's no doubt. That's where Ole Miss needs to be."Thompson knows bestTo really learn about a guy, you call somebody who has known him for a long time and someone you trust. So I called John Thompson, who coached Orgeron at Northwestern (La.) State and then coached with him at the same school. Yes, that's the same John Thompson, who was hired Thursday as Steve Spurrier's defensive coordinator at South Carolina."Ole Miss got 'em a ball coach," Thompson said. "But you better learn how to speak Cajun or you won't understand him."Thompson was a young coach just getting started when Orgeron was playing at Northwestern."Everybody called him Bebe (pronounced Bay-Bay)," Thompson said. "I guess it's Cajun for something, but one of my first player-coach meetings was with Bebe. I found out really quick he had a fire about him. He played defensive end and was probably a little undersized, but he was a great player for us. He was a tough guy, a real tough guy."You always knew you were going to get your best from him. You never had to worry about Bebe. You hear people talk about somebody being a players' coach. Well, he was a coach's player. I knew way back then he'd someday make a great coach."No play, no stayBobby Hebert, the former Saints quarterback, was a high school and college teammate and four-year roommate of Orgeron's at Northwestern State. They are third cousins and have remained close friends. Said Hebert, when reached by phone in Atlanta, "We go way back."Orgeron originally went to LSU on a football scholarship but left after his freshman year. Orgeron, says Hebert, was never one to sit around."Here he is at LSU, and he's not playing as a freshman, and he can't handle it," Hebert said, chuckling. "If he wasn't playing, he wasn't staying."Hebert says Orgeron has retained the same intensity, and same passion for the sport as a coach."I'll be shocked if he doesn't win," Hebert said. "And by winning I mean winning the SEC West and going to Atlanta. I know a lot of Ole Miss people are going to wonder if they're getting a good coach or not, because this guy is coming out of nowhere. But I'll assure you Ole Miss is getting one heckuva football coach. You've got to get your start somewhere. Nobody at Ole Miss had heard of Tommy Tuberville, either."Football is his life. He'll be the first one there and the last one to leave."Hebert also talked about Orgeron's personal transformation after Orgeron, then a coach at Miami, was arrested after head-butting a bar manager in a barroom brawl."He's a changed man," Hebert said. "People mature at different stages in their lives. I remember when we were in college, we would get done with practice and get back to the room and he would say let's go get a beer," Hebert said. "And with Bebe, that meant a couple of six packs. But he's changed. One of the last times I saw him, he told me he hadn't had a drink in four years. That told me right there that he had a life-changing experience."Orgeron is about to experience more huge changes. From L.A. to Oxford. From assistant to head man. From being delegated to, to doing the delegating. The spotlight, he knows, is on him.Said Orgeron, "This is what I've always wanted."