Today was one of the most important days in LSU football history 16 years ago.

We had suffered through Archer and Hallman. The SOS destruction on national tv on a Saturday night. Then Gerry brought back some magic until his carpet crashed and burned.

Season was over, one game left. Ranked Arkansas coming to town and Dinardo was gone. Hal Hunter (WHO?) was the coach for one game.

Hunter let the team unwind for Thanksgiving and let them go home to enjoy the holiday (within reason). Game day comes.

Josh Booty screws around and the crowd is thinking here we go again. Hunter says screw Josh's screwing around and yanks him in first quarter and puts in Ro. Next thing you know, a switch is flipped. Reminded one of the second half of the basketball game in The Absent Minded Professor. Rohan is running and passing wild on the defense. The O Line suddenly is kicking arse. Receiver's are getting open. The D picks up on it and starts smothering Arkansas. Razorbacks don't know what hit them for three quarters and the crowd is going nuts as FINALLY the LSU team everyone expected for two years actually showed up.

Big win but important as it showed that coaching was the problem at LSU. It showed that LSU had the players, had the resources, it just needed leadership. It was nice seeing a group of talented players beat down for so long and wake up to realize that they could play some damn good football and dominate some good opposition.


Saban later told a private booster group that of the top 22 athletes on the team, over half were riding the pine the previous year and that his job was to figure out how to get them on the field. I always thought that game went a long way in showing what our players were capable of doing on the field.