The call came just as Ed Orgeron was pulling into a Taco Bell drive-thru, and the legendary LSU head coach quickly decided Sai’vion Jones was more important than a taco.

“Coach!” said Robert Valdez, then Jones’ coach at St. James High in Vacherie, La. “I got Sai’vion Jones on the phone.”

“Oh, hell , baby!” Orgeron exclaimed in his unmistakable Cajun drawl.

A few months after LSU had put together one of the most dominant seasons in college football history, the now-ex head coach was trying to win another recruiting race in spring 2020: Jones, a four-star edge rusher who’d sprouted into a top Louisiana prospect. Jones decided he wanted to stay in his home state. So he told Valdez to call Orgeron.

At this moment, though, the Taco Bell kiosk crackled to life.

Can I take your order?

“I’

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