I too was a big Cholly Mac fan. In fact (and this really dates me) I wrote a letter to Joe Planas defending Mac and he put it in one of his columns. Mac was let go because fans, then as now, are not satisfied with excellence. They want greatness (i.e. National Championships). Mac was too close in time to the '58 NC and there were many who lusted for another one. In my opinion, there are still many who set the bar by the 1958 - 1962 standard. What really killed Mac was that he couldn't beat the Bear. Seems like every season we were 7-0 going into the Bama game and we'd come out 7-1. LSU had great defensive teams under Charlie Mac and, unfortunately, it was realized too late that a bird in the hand beats 2 in the bush. Firing Charlie was a huge mistake from which, I feel, we are just now beginning to recover.
You are right on target there SabanFan. Few people were beating Bear at that time. Charlie Mac was at least giving him a good game. Everyone had their nemisis back then. Bear had Ara Parsegian and Derryl Royal but they were all friends. Ara once sent Bear a letter telling him what a great game he played in his loss, Bear told Ara he didn't lose he just ran out of time. Bryant was the nemisis of most of the rest. I liked Arnsbarger at LSU also but he didn't stay very long. He really had the Tigers ready to play. It's a shame Archer couldn't keep it going. I think you are right that Saban will be one of the best hires LSU has made since Cholly Mac. Make the improvements he needs and keep him happy. Cholly Mac was IMO one of the classiest coaches in the SEC and I am pretty sure he would not approve of the way Coach Bryant is being dissed.
I don't think LSU fans here are dissing the Bear so much as they are chiding the Bama fans for pointing to the era of the Bear as proof that they are the preeminent program in the country. There is no question that Bear was a great coach...the key word being WAS. I agree that Arsparger was a very good coach as well. Unfortunately, Tigertown wasn't big enough for his and Broadhead's egos.
This was started by LSUSupafan. Perhaps he should let us know what he thinks after reading these posts. Maybe he changed his mind. I'm not sure that accusing Bama and Bear of obtaining "ill-gotten titles" is the correct approach here. In fact, it's probably the wrong approach. Bear was a great football coach and a great man. I disagree with those who don't agree with that. I remember Coach Charles McClendon's teams, and I think he was fired because he couldn't beat Bama often enough. We hired Bo Rein as his replacement, and we'll never know how Coach Rein would have done because his plane crashed on a recruiting trip. We hired Jerry Stovall after that, and we all know that we'd have been better off with Cholly Mac. THEREFORE: I wish we'd have kept Cholly Mac until Bill Arnsparger came along. [ JOKE WARNING, MR. MODERATOR. A MERE JOKE] After we had Coach Arnsparger, we should have kept him at LSU at any cost, including taking his family hostage until he won us a National Championship. Some might argue that taking a coach's family hostage is not a fair way to convince him to stay at your school. Fair enough. I understand that some people don't perform at their best under coercion. As an alternative, we could have taken Bob Broadhead's family hostage until he swore fealty to Bill Arnsparger. I know that there are laws against this sort of thing, but I feel that, with a very good defense lawyer on our side, sentences to jail time could have been kept to an absolute minimum. Also consider that there is cable TV in prison, therefore we could have watched LSU on TV while serving time. :geaux: :lsug:
What if the judge is an LSU fan? What if we can get the case in front of a judge who is a big LSU fan? Then the sentence might be limited to community service only, such as, cleaning up the campus on Sundays after home games. This idea of mine could revolutionize college football coaching and bring the "Era of Coaches Jumping Fences to Greener Pastures" to an abrupt end. Who says my posts don't present any constructive ideas around here? :geaux: :lsug:
Re: What if the judge is an LSU fan? Maybe the community service would have been having to sell hot dogs or peanuts at all the games in Tiger Stadium for 2 years. You might have to work but at least you could watch the game.
This should be a 5 star thread. Bayoutider and SabanFan have done a great job of discussing the issue of two very good men that happen to be great coaches.
Maybe a somewhat broader topic would be whether you would choose Bear and his legacy (i.e., the entire history of Bama football from his arrival "home" to today) or Cholly Mac and his. Of course, Bama won many more national championships during that period (although probably not as many as they claim ), but they seem saddled by the Bear's legacy. I realize that Bama won a championship under Stallings, but he and every other coach since 1981 has been compared to Bryant. His are huge shoes to fill in the minds of fans, and no one has seemed to accomplish that feat in the last 22 years. On the other hand, though Mac left a significant legacy that is appreciated more today than in 1979, he was forced out. LSU's troubles came due to poor hires and bad luck rather than coaches failing to live up to a prior coach's legacy. In addition, LSU has not felt the need to hire from "within the family" as has Bama. I'm not making a case for either coach and his legacy, since I think it is easy to argue both sides. It is hard to argue with championships, but did they come at such a price as to make future championships difficult to impossible?
Is there another choice? Sorry guys. But I never was a fan of either coach. Didn't like Bear cause he was worshipped at Bama so much, and because he beat us as much as he did. Didn't care for Mac cause,(remember I was young at the time and under the influence of my dad), as I remember his play selection consisting of: up the middle, up the middle, pass, punt. In that order every series, regardless of situation or field position. I pick Saban!
