Looking Back, How did Charlie Mac keep his job for so long?

The Bear was the Bear, and Charlie Mac came from the same tree.

That's how.

Charlie Mac is obscenely overrated. Old LSU fans give him way too much credit.

The old timer LSU fans are the worst, man. They start threads on here chastising people for expecting excellence, because all they ever grew up with was mediocrity.

frick that, I want excellence.

At the time, LSU's AD was willing to accept mediocrity because of personal allegiances.

It was stupid.

I gotta agree, wiki.

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His legitimate claim to fame was LSU had an amazing defense every year.

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He was a defensive genius in those days. And that counted for a lot. LSU was rarely embarrassed or found unprepared. It was a "given" that Bear Bryant was the king of the SEC, so there was little surprise that the Bammers spanked everybody, LSU included. But Cholly Mac's defenses could make the game interesting most of the time. LSU was kind of an upper/middle tier football power back then, down from the Dietzel glory years, but ok by a lot of standards. Fewer bowl games were in play, but LSU often got to one and did reasonably well when we did (such as beating unbeaten SWC giant Arkansas in the prestigious Cotton Bowl). We were often cast into the "giant killer" or spoiler role, and could do it, or at least come close. That made LSU football fun. There were no Wii games, Rants, or cable channels to surf, so...

When Cholly would get in the most trouble with the fan base was when Ole Miss would beat us. They were the undisputed "great Satan" of the LSU nation, and a loss to the Rebels was akin to the loss of a limb.

I'm one of those old farts. We knew Mac wasn't the best coach we could have but for a while there we were at the top of the league and were going to Sugar and Orange Bowls. We didn't win Conference Championships on a regualar basis but that was mostly due to the Bear. Later in his career it became obvious that he had to go but he had been here for so long with consistantly good if not great results it took awhile to get him out. He ran an above average, clean, honest and competitive program for 20 years. It could have been alot worse. See Hallman. And thats what you young guys don't seem to get. We like winning and championships as much as you but also know that changing programs every 5 years means some of those changes will result in disaster. It may be prudent to give a good man who runs a good program on many levels a chance to shine some of the time. rather than risking it all every 5 years.

It was a different era. As previous posters said there was no internet and LSU rarely played on television. McClendon retired after the '79 season so this was pre-cable tv for most people. I can count on one hand the number of times I saw LSU play on television from the mid-70's to the early 80's back when there were only 3 channels in most homes. It was a Saturday night ritual to listen to the game on the radio.

It was a different time with less money and expectations involved. The need for immediate gratificaiton was not there.

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We used to beat the crap out of Texas A&M, Rice, and Baylor on a yearly basis.

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Don't forget the Green-Weenies, our traditional victory at the end of the season.

he had only one losing season and he did compete for the national championship a couple of times, even though we didn't win it. i can remember no 7 lsu playing no 1 nebraska in the bowl and we gave them a good game.

he was too damned predictable on offense. you can't beat superior teams heads up. you've got to try to do something on offense.

he was a real gentleman and a quality guy. it hurt that he stayed long enough to experience the vitriol of the fan base. but he needed to go.

I remember Bert Jones saying the worst mistake he ever made was coming to play at LSU. Charlie wouldn't let him throw as often as this staff lets JJ throw.