Dinardo had some pretty good games at LSU, but he only had half as my many as Saban and also in a longer amount of time. I wouldnt mind adding Indiana to our schedule as long as we have some other teams on there so it wouldnt hurt our SOS. But I do wish Dinardo well at IU.
DiNardo was a miserable failure at LSU because his oversized ego would not allow him to replace the talented coordinators who resigned because they did not want to work for him. After Carl Reese, Mo Watts, et al left DiNardo refused to replace them with what he called "more geniuses"who would hold him "hostage." He was a paranoid, control freak, and in the end, it cost him one of the best jobs in college football. He could have been here forever if he had taken a page out of the Bobby Bowden playbook and hired top-flight assistants (remember Tepper!!). I was fond of DiNardo when he was winning, and I am happy for what he did in the first couple of years (with good assistants) to dig us out of the even deeper hole that Curley Hallman (perhaps our worst coach ever in LSU History) had dug. Thank Heaven for Saban!!!
If the good Gerry DiNardo hadn't let the bad Gerry DiNardo take over - if he had kept good assistants and let them do their jobs, if he had not hired bad assistants (Tepper) and kept them despite the disaster they caused, He might still be the LSU coach. He might have even had a Top 10 year or two by now. BUT - He would never in a million years have accomplished what Nick Saban has done in only four years. Saban would be coaching somewhere else and winning conference and national championships and building an elite program if not a dynasty somewhere else and we would still be stuck with not much more than mediocity. The suffering we all went through under the bad Gerry DiNardo was worth it all. Saban won an SEC title in only his second year at LSU with mostly Dinardo recruits. LSU legends like Rohan Davey and Josh Reed were recruited by Dinardo. Saban won the SEC and the NC in his fourth year with his own recruits with a few DiNardo holdovers. NO PAIN --- NO GAIN
This was actually the POINT of this string. What I'm suggesting is that PERHAPS Saban didn't win with "Dinardo's Recruits" but rather "LSU's Recruits". Every year, NO MATTER WHO IS THE COACH, LSU will get a certain number of Blue Chip recruits. It's the LSU name. Even Curley got his fair share of blue chippers. Dinardo didn't recruit ANYTHING LIKE Saban is recruiting. And, when you look at what Dinardo is recruiting up in Indiana, I think it begs the question of whether Dinardo recruited the players that Saban brought to an SEC Championship 2 years ago, or whether Dinardo just happened to be the LSU coach when these kids decided to go to LSU. Looking at Dinardo's class at Indiana, he just doesn't look like a top notch recruiter.
Dinardo won with Hallmans recruits, Saban won with Dinardo's but niether of the other 2 recruited the best and the brightest of the LA players year in and year out. You can't compare their recruiting classes to Saban's not even close. We were stockpiling amny a kid that should not have been in the SEC when both of those coaches were here. And Dinardo did blast LSU on several occasions after he was fired and threatened a lawsuit as well. He didn't handle himself too well and if you didn't hear any of things he had said over the years you didn't get the or read the Advocate. And SabanRules you hit it on the head with all of your comments, the program was in a shambles and the only reason we got out of it the way we did was do to Saban being incredibly good. A lesser coach would have taken years to turn it around.
What's the point in pounding on the guy? The DiNardo era, for the most part , is dead and gone. Except for the good memories, and there were some, I choose to relegate it to the dustbin of time. Hell, as hard as it is, I even have a good memory of Curley! Remember when pigs flew? We should be too busy reveling in the present to be worrying about the past. Wish the guy luck and go on. GEAUX TIGERS!!!! LSU, 2003, THE BEST IN THE NATION AND THE SEC!!!!! :geaux: :helmet: :lsug: :helmet: :geaux:
