LSU head coach Ed Orgeron will have to continue his search for a new defensive coordinator.
On Monday, the NFL Network’s Jane Slater and other news outlets reported New Orleans Saints defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen had told head coach Sean Payton that he was prepared to take the defensive coordinator in Baton Rouge. Sources confirmed the same with the Geaux247 staff.
But then there came a snag, with Slater later reporting the Saints were not currently signing off on releasing Nielsen as the franchise disputed “whether the language of Nielsen’s contract will support the move to the college ranks.”
By Tuesday morning, Orgeron was on 104.5 ESPN’s Off the Bench with T-Bob Hebert to share the latest from LSU’s end.
“We are still working on it,” Orgeron said. “He is a primary candidate. I obviously love Ryan. He is a bright, young, energetic coach, and he comes to us highly recommended. But there are still some things to work out to see if he still can come to LSU, and those things are not final yet.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Bruce Feldman reported Nielsen would remain with the Saints and would not take the defensive coordinator job, with sources telling the Geaux247 staff that the Saints would not release Nielsen from his contract.
Nielsen was Orgeron’s most recent target to replace Bo Pelini, who spent one season as the defensive coordinator under Orgeron. Baylor head coach Dave Aranda was previously LSU’s defensive coordinator before Pelini’s 2020 season in Baton Rouge.
Nielsen, a graduate of Southern Cal, played defensive line under Orgeron in the late 1990s and earls 2000s. His first job in college coaching was as a graduate assistant under Orgeron at USC in 2002, and he worked his way up the coaching ranks from there. In 2005, Orgeron named Nielsen as his defensive line coach at Ole Miss, and the two spent three seasons together in Oxford. From 2013-2016, Nielsen was the defensive line/recruiting coordinator/run game coordinator at North Carolina State, which is where his rise to fame took on a new speed. After being in the mix for the Broyles Award, Saints head coach Sean Payton grabbed Nielsen as the team’s defensive line coach in 2017, and his results were impressive across four seasons with the team.
Now, Payton and Co. have put the clamps down on Orgeron’s bid to lure in the talented Saints assistant.
For the Tigers, there are three hires still left to be made on the defensive side of the football.
Orgeron has to find a defensive coordinator, and then make hires at either defensive line or linebackers coach, as well as a new safeties coach.
Stay tuned to Geaux247 and 247Sports for more on this developing story.
