Eleven a.m. kickoffs stink. Tailgating becomes breakfast and player pregame routines are condensed into the time they'd rather be relaxing.

They're rare at LSU, famous for its night games. All but three were played in the evening last year with one 11 a.m. tucked in Nov. 11 against Arkansas. A handful of former Tigers recalled the locker room scene that preceded that brunch in Baton Rouge.

Ed Orgeron got primal before that morning game.

"He walked in there and said it's time to set your jaw," said former Tiger offensive lineman K.J. Malone. "And started punching himself in the jaw."

Astros pitcher Ken Giles recently went viral for smoking himself in the face. That was punitive.

Orgeron, LSU's 56-year old head coach, sacrificed for motivation.

"Punch yourself in the face in the morning if you're not ready," center Will Clapp remembered was the message.

Some coaches speak in hashtags. Orgeron lives them.

"It's a real serious punch," said Toby Weathersby, another ex-LSU offensive lineman who spoke with AL.com at the NFL combine. "Then he'll look at us and start growling. He'll give us a growl and you know what time it means. It's time to go win a ball game."

It left an impression.

"He was punching," Malone said. "I tried to do it. I thought, dang. He's probably one of the best coaches I've been around."

Nobody in the room was surprised, Malone said. Orgeron's legend goes back to his time as an assistant coach at places like Miami and USC. His time as the Ole Miss head coach from 2005-07 added to the tall tales you can still find deep in board posts and Reddit threads.

Bruce Feldman cited a message board posting about the allegedly shirtless "Ole Miss Wild Boys" moment in his 2007 book "Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting."

After confiscating all earrings from players in his first meeting as head coach, Orgeron left the meeting room saying he'd return sans-shirt and his players better pop their tops before he returned. When he did, Orgeron whipped the team into a frenzy having one side of the team chant "Ole Miss" and the other "Wild Boys," according to Feldman's book. It ended with with the coach offering the opportunity to any player who thought they wanted a "a piece of me" to come forward. None did. Subsequent interviews downplayed aspects of the meeting, Feldman wrote.

The son of Be Be and CoCo Orgeron always dreamed of coaching LSU. A product of the small bayou town of Larose, La., Orgeron briefly played at LSU before leaving for Northwestern State. His coaching odyssey spanned the range between McNeese State, Syracuse, the Saints and a season as Lane Kiffin's defensive line coach at Tennessee.

He returned to LSU as the defensive line coach in 2015 and was promoted to interim head coach after Les Miles' firing early in the 2016 season. It became a permanent assignment after the regular season.

Orgeron's distinct Louisiana accent and blue-collar mentality separates him from some of the more suit-and-tie coaches in the SEC.

"He's something else, that's for sure," said former LSU quarterback Danny Etling, a transfer who came from Purdue after growing up in Indiana. "There's almost a language barrier."

Each former Tiger who recalled their favorite Orgeron stories did so with a smile.

"Before one of the games," Etling said, "he'll come down and drink a whole Red Bull, smashes it on his head, lifts off his shirt and he's punching himself in the jaw getting us ready, pumped up to play. That's Coach O for you."

There were times, the two-year starting passer said, he had to calm himself down after a pregame pump-up "because I need to be nice and calm in the pocket."

Clapp, the former center, remembered a similar story about Orgeron's return to Oxford this fall.

"Before Ole Miss, it was his first time going back to their stadium this year," Clapp said. "We got down to the hotel before the busses left. His pregame speech was he came in, started screaming and yelling. Then he chugged a Red Bull and then we got on the bus."

A few players also noted a new tradition Orgeron started for those final moments before leaving the pregame locker room. It involves chin straps and some synchronization.

"He doesn't have a chill on Saturdays," said receiver DJ Chark, a second-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars. "He comes in. He said the best sound is the Tigers going to war. He goes 1-2-3 and everybody snaps their helmet. It's a tradition he started. Everybody looks forward to and gets hyped on."

It's not all energy drinks, self-delivered punches and shirtless shouting.

There's still a message behind the madness that's made him a football folk hero.

"That sound means you're clicking," Etling said. "You're ready to go play football. That sends chills up your spine."