re: The "Dark Ages" of LSU Football

In a word, Joe Dean. The administration above him had a lot to do with it, too, but Joe Dean was really instrumental in maintaining the nightmare. His "cost cutting" skills equated to basically hiring the cheapest coach he could find. He got lucky with DiNardo in that the man could actually coach a litte and recruit. But once that came crashing down the whole administration had to have a personality change (i.e., Mark Emmert) and make the commitment to achieving elite status. Which meant hiring Nick Saban and making all the improvement commitments he required to come here and be successful.

And, as already mentioned, the "Dark Ages" of LSU had nothing to do with Cholly Mac's tenure.

There were some struggles after he retired that included some revolving door situations, but also some genuine unforeseeable tragedy. Bo Rein, the coach hired to replace Mac, was killed in a plane crash while recruiting. So we had to hire Jerry Stovall on short notice as a replacement. He had mixed results (National Coach of the Year and an Orange Bowl in '82, I believe), but wasn't the answer long term. Then Bill Arnsparger had success but retired from coaching to become Florida's AD. Then the Archer situation started the backslide into the Dark Ages.