Forget Joe Exotic, LSU football’s Coach O is the real Tiger King
Move over Joe Exotic, the real Tiger King is LSU football coach Ed Orgeron.
The new Netflix Original documentary series Tiger King is the latest must-see title from the streaming service. If you haven’t started watching, it’s an absolute trip into the seedy underbelly of the Big Cat world and the unsavory characters that run that ring.
One of the leading figures in the series is Joe Exotic, who is one of the most outlandish characters you’ll ever see. He breeds tigers for his G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma and gets people to give him way too much money to take a tiger pup selfie and to see the big cats up close.
Without spoiling anything else for those waiting to watch or in the middle of their binge, Joe Exotic is also a big phony. He’s not the real Tiger King. The real Tiger King is LSU football coach Ed Orgeron and I accept no substitutes or imposters.
Coach O as he’s fondly referred to in the Bayou and around college football is the king of the college football world after leading the LSU Tigers to an undefeated season and the program’s first national championship since 2007. Coach O hired Joe Brady who helped Joe Burrow turn in a Heisman-winning season and one of the best seasons, if not the best, single-season performance we’ve ever seen by a college quarterback.
Everything Coach O did in 2019 worked, including dominating the Clemson Tigers in the 2020 National Championship Game when we learned who the top tiger really is.
Before beating the Tigers of Clemson, Coach O led his Tigers to a win over SEC West foe Auburn Tigers. It was the most competitive game LSU played all year but they were still no match for the real Tiger King.
After sweeping most of all the Coach of the Year Awards last year, Coach O has completely transformed his career from SEC burnout to being rejected by USC to getting his dream job. He’s an inspiration for all of us to never give up on chasing our dream jobs. Just because it didn’t work out somewhere else doesn’t mean that it can’t work out elsewhere.
That’s exactly what happened with Coach O who is a beloved figure in almost every other city outside of the places he beat last year. It’s hard not to root for the gravely-voiced, barrel-chested coach either. The way he ended every interview last year with his patented “Go Tigahs” catchphrase was so genuine and endearing that it spawned impressions from across the country.
There can only be one Tiger King. It’s not Joe Exotic. It’s Coach O.
Go Tigahs!
dark. Next. College coaches who would be the life of the tailgate party
For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.