We've been making a lot of excuses for our program lately. Hope someone can convey them to recruits: > time/weather is very hard on our fans, but when things are just right our stadium is insane >Losing to ole miss missing a bunch of starters is ok, our defense is having a down year >bama keeps contending for nc's, but les wins 80%, he's better than 100 also ran programs and/or mismanaged or down major programs, and bama cheats >playing for nc's isn't everything and it isn't realistic to expect (except for bama); we do things the right way, our players are well behaved choirboys, and les is a good man
Signed, Barkevious Mingo, Eric Reid, Brad Wing, Sam Montgomery, Tyrann Mathieu, Kevin Minter, Mo Clairborne, do I need to go on?
There is only 1 team in college football that doesn't have excuses over the past 4 years. It ain't that bad. If kids wanna go play for the tiny fuhrer let em go.
Recruiting is never going to be our issue with Les Miles. Gameday decision making? I can't guarantee success in that department.
No, and it's funny how the responses to this thread mostly sound like more excuses or people so embattled in their position they're unable to respond intelligently. I am able to give miles credit, but I wonder how many of you would have (or did) go to bat for past coaching failures... >archer was hand-picked by exiting coach (good ole boy failure) >hallman seems like an honest mistake, though probably had something to do with AD being cheap >dinardo was a coach with minimal success at vandy All that to say the dark ages were resultant of bad decisions, not just the turmoil of running off a stagnant coaching staff (in response to argument made by red). And to say that many of the defenders are unable to criticize, even when criticisms are warranted. The opinion of folks like that is of minimal to moderate value, IMO.
While it is useless to attempt to change your mind I will point out a few things for you to chew on. The whole Archer, Hallman, DiNardo age of LSU football began with the poor way LSU dumped Charlie McClendon AND the tragic death of Bo Rein. The firing of Charlie did cause problems with other coaches who were NOT interested in the job because of that. After a long search LSU was only able to hire Rein a relatively unknown from NC State (no football power there). When he died the AD went to Stovall who had no experience as a HC. IMO Jerry was learning quickly and may have been a good coach but was let go in a panicky move. Then Bob Broadhead brought in Arnsparger who was old but a defensive genius. He was the best D coach ever at LSU and makes Nicky look like Ned and his first reader in comparison. Unfortunately he was old had no been in the college game forever and didn't like it. Whether he hated LSU is debatable but he did pack up and leave for the Florida job in the middle of the night. Archer was another panicky decision by Broadhead. The team had a unanimous vote for him and made it known. Basically the inmates ran the asylum. After Archer's failure no serious coach would look at the job LSU was seen as unstable and cheap. Hallman traded on being the coach while Brett Favre was ay Southern Miss. He was an idiot and a poltroon who was the cap on the failure of several administrations to manage the program. DiNardo was again a choice forced on LSU by the fact that no top coach would consider LSU at the time. He was significantly better than Hallman though and should be given credit for putting LSU on a path up from the bottom. So many like to ignore the fact that DiNardo started putting a "fence" around Louisiana and getting top recruits. Saint Nicky won his first NC with many of the players Gerry recruited. What this saga shows is that poor administration acting poorly creates poor football. LSU put itself in a corner by firing Mac. It took Mark Emmert and his strong will to change the equation at LSU football. He was the one who hired Saban and changed the environment. So people remember today the hiring and firing of coaches isn't the simple equation you try to make it. Unless you have faith in Joe Alleva and our current president/chancellor to have the strength, intelligence and foresight to do a good job be careful. This tale is consistent throughout college football over the last 20 years. It happened at Tennessee (after Fulmer) , Alabama (after Stallings and before Nick), USC (after Robinson , before Carroll and again after him), Oklahoma (after Barry Switzer and before Bob), Michigan (after Bo), and so many others. They lost popular coaches and were lost in the football woods for years. It is not unique to LSU and IMO is a cautionary tale.
