By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Not sure who you’re rooting for Monday night in the College Football Playoff championship game between unbeaten, No. 1 Indiana and No. 10 Miami, playing in its home stadium?
There are local angles for the Hoosiers and Hurricanes.
Indiana’s football staff includes former Northwestern State strength coach Jared Myatt, who was a volunteer coach earlier at Louisiana Tech and LSU.
David Blay, who was an all-conference player at Tech in 2024, is part of Miami’s defensive line rotation.
And the Hurricanes have not one, but two Orgerons. Cody and Parker Orgeron, sons of former LSU national championship coach Ed Orgeron (a Northwestern State alumnus), are young analysts on Mario Cristobal’s coaching staff.
Myatt is in his second year an assistant athletic performance coach but he’s not handling 14 sports as he did at Northwestern, where his main focus was with Brad Laird’s football team from 2017-19. He helped coach a pair of FCS All-American wide receivers in Jazz Ferguson (2018) and Quan Shorts (2019), with Ferguson named the Southland Offensive Player of the Year.
He also worked with three top-10 round picks in the Major League Baseball Draft, including Cleveland Guardians 2024 MLB All-Star David Fry.
His first full-time position came with Appalachian State where he headed the strength program for wrestling and assisted with the football program.
Myatt spent two stints as a volunteer assistant at Louisiana Tech (2015) and LSU, which sandwiched a graduate assistant position at Mercer.
A four-year collegiate career at Louisiana College in Pineville included a pair of first-team All-American Southwest Conference honors and a second-team All-America nod on the defensive line from USA College Football as a senior.
He owns a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Louisiana College, now Louisiana Christian, in 2015. He left NSU for a job at Texas Tech and was coaching at Live Oak High School near Baton Rouge when he got the call from the Hoosiers.
Blay moved up to the highest level of college football after a standout two-year career at Louisiana Tech (2023-24). He started all 12 games at defensive tackle for the Bulldogs in 2024, earning All-Conference USA first-team recognition. He topped Tech’s defensive front with 46 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and two quarterback hurries in final year, serving as team leader in both sacks and TFLs, and finished third in CUSA in sacks and tied for third in TFLs.
He has made 25 tackles while wearing No. 11 for Miami.
The Orgerons are former McNeese football players. Cody was a standout quarterback for the Cowboys and Parker played receiver before injuries halted his career.
They are on opposite sides of the ball for the Hurricanes. Cody is an offensive analyst and Parker works on the defensive staff.
Their proud papa has a condominium in Miami. As defensive line coach from 1988-92, he helped the Hurricanes win two national championships (1989, 1991) while coaching eight All-Americans, including three NFL first-round draft picks. He also recruited Dwayne Johnson to play for the ‘Canes, sparking a career that has made “The Rock” one of the prime figures in entertainment.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com