Top to bottom ... the SEC has been the finest College FB conference in my lifetime ... and that's been a long time. Coach Mac, LSU's best coach since Nick Saban arrived (Arnsparger didn't hang around long enough), faced a hellish time in the late 70's ... even with a career winning record better than 70% ... Howls of "Help Mac Pack" rang through Death Valley in 1978, especially after Heisman Candidate Alexander fell with a knee injury against Georgia and a loaded LSU failed to meet such high expectations ... Alexander 4 Heisman ... remember Coach Mac's defenses were great and his offense was predictable much of the time as he truly believed in a controlling rushing attack ... he would out-defense you ... and Mac led LSU teams mostly dominated teams in the trenches ... smashmouth SEC FB owes true allegiance to fine gentlemen like Coach Charles McClendon, now and hopefully forever. I see many parallels between Coach Mac and Nick Saban ... though the game has changed much over these past 25 years when I played. In early 1979, a lame duck Coach McClendon ... in his final year coaching but promised an LSU AD position ... took a directorship for a first-year bowl in Orlando, Florida ... It was called the Tangerine Bowl Amazingly, the 1979 team ... in Coach Mac's last game, received a bid to play in the Tangerine Bowl :wink: Coach Mac's 1979 LSU Tigers didn't disappoint him ... and throttled Wake Forest by a score of 34-10. They owned the trenches that day ... and the True Tiger Faithful ... who travel and sacrifice to see their Tigers ... howled for Coach Mac ... I can close my eyes and still see him saluting the crowd after his final gridiron battle Coach Mac kept ties with Orlando and turned the Tangerine Bowl into one of the most prestigious bowl invitations on New Year's Day. ... It was later called the Citrus Bowl ... a sure winner with an Orlando flavor. It is now the Capital One Bowl ... THE MOST LUCRATIVE OF ALL NON-BCS BOWLS. :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: IT OWES A DEBT THAT CANNOT BE REPAID TO ONE MAN ... LSU COACH CHOLLY MAC :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: :lsug: As I heard choruses of booing in Tiger Stadium this year ... my mind drifted back to thoughts of Cholly Mac and good things we had in the 60's & 70's, but didn't realize or appreciate it. As I look ahead to a January travel date in Orlando ... actually Tampa and the In-laws ... I can't forget the last time LSU played there ... I imagine an inspired LSU team under Nick Saban playing a New Year's Bowl game in Orlando for the first time since 1979 ... and winning They'll play against Iowa ... not a Wake Forest ... but LSU will play that same smashmouth SEC style of College FB that Charles McClendon loved, trusted and employed until the end of his tenure at LSU ... with a focus on great dee. Coach McClendon will be there watching the boys ... and smiling!
That Tangerine Bowl is still to this day the only bet I've ever made with a bookie in my life, it was the ultimate no brainer for me, a much more talented LSU team playing their last game under a storied coach.
Cholly Mac faced a great deal of criticism because he couldn't beat the Bear. Funny thing is, nobody else could either. :wink:
