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1978 LSU football roster: how do they stack up?

Posted on 7/18/11 at 1:07 am
Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
98070 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 1:07 am
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I picked this year more or less at random: The Tigers went 8-4 that year and lost to Missouri in the Liberty Bowl. Some very notable names on this roster, including Charles Alexander, Steve Ensminger,David Woodley and Carlos Carson, , as well as lots of guys who toiled in obscurity.

Question: How would these guys match up against the current roster? Give them a modern year round S&C program to make it fair. My opinion: A lot of the skill position players could hold their own. Where you'd see a real disparity would be the OL, DL and LBers. The biggest offensive lineman I remember from that era was Charles McDuff, at about 270 pounds, and he was slow as a glacier at that weight.
Posted by shel311
McKinney, Texas
Member since Aug 2004
110477 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 1:50 am to
Boy is it time for the new season to start.
Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
98070 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 1:57 am to
Posted by Ace Midnight
Between sanity and madness
Member since Dec 2006
89451 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 7:10 am to
Chris Williams was money at CB. He remains the career interception leader.

Tioga High School's sole LSU scholarship football player in history.

Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
98070 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 7:18 am to
The Alexandria area has never been a football hotspot for some reason.
Posted by dimet
North Carolina
Member since Feb 2009
187 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 7:49 am to
Charlie would be a terrific zone scheme RB...great speed, incredible strength and a true one cut guy. Carlos Carson could fly and would flourish in a true 4 wide out system. Remember that OL had Robert Dugas, who was 2nd team All American. Defensively, the secondary had Chris Williams, Willie Teal and James Britt...they all spent lots of time playing on Sundays...
Posted by Jim Rockford
Member since May 2011
98070 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 8:07 am to
Those are some good examples, and I think the great players would be great in any era. I think the difference is in the second tier players and in depth. I doubt you could field an entire team from that roster that would be competitive in the SEC nowadays. JMHO.
Posted by TxTiger82
Member since Sep 2004
33935 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 8:24 am to
quote:

Question: How would these guys match up against the current roster?


They don't. The only Mac coached teams that could possibly match the talent of today's team would be those teams from the late 60s and early 70s.

Mac's teams tailed off significantly in the mid 70s. We bounced back and sent him out a winner but the mid and late 70s was just not as good.
Posted by LSU82BILL
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Member since Sep 2006
10307 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 9:02 am to
quote:

Defensively, the secondary had Chris Williams, Willie Teal and James Britt...they all spent lots of time playing on Sundays...



....as did Clinton Burrell.

To answer the OP's question, those teams wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against todays teams. I went to the LSUSports.net and looked at the rosters of teams in the early 80's of guys I knew and thought were pretty damn big at the time. It's amazing how most of those lineman weren't even 250 lbs.

1980 LSU Football roster
Posted by CharlesLSU
Member since Jan 2007
31872 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 10:17 am to
Pete Mangurian?! Never thought about it......

Posted by jimbeaux82
Natchitoches, La
Member since Oct 2008
1337 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 10:34 am to
I played against Chris Williams in High School, even tackled him a couple times!!!



I find it really funny that Doc Dugas was listed as a "Massive" tackle at 275 lbs, was All American, drafted by Dallas and probably could not even start today at that size!!
Posted by I-59 Tiger
Vestavia Hills, AL
Member since Sep 2003
36703 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 11:42 am to
not sure how you measure one team from a generation ago with one today.

Still that '78 LSU team remains a very interesting one.They were pre-season #13 and given a good shot by some to unseat Alabama as SEC Champ.Charles Alexander was back for his senior year and mentioned for the Heisman.Unfortunately they slopped around in the first two games which were the first two with the original West upper deck with Indiana and Wake Forest.Seemed to get it togethor at Rice and at Florida. Came home #10 to face Georgia (for the first time since '52.

LSU led 17-7 at halfime but "Run Lindsey Run" Scott ran the second half kickoff back 99 yds for a td and Georgia got 10 more third qtr points off LSU turnovers to win 24-17.

The Tigers regrouped and went to Birmingham 6-1 and ranked #10 again to face #3 Alabama at Legion Field.LSU scored on its second drive with a 25 yd scoring pass from David Woodley to Carlos Carson to go up 7-0.After a couple of first downs on Alabama's next possession Chris Williams intercepted a Jeff Rutledge pass and ran it in for an apparent touchdown to go up 13-0. The officials huddled and while Williams' interception stood, the td was wiped out by a phantom clip penalty and LSU instead of lining up for a point after and 14-0 lead had the ball on the Tigers' own 15.

Alabama scored on the second play of the 2nd qtr after a fake punt on 4th and 2 near midfield went for 19 yds. The Tide led 14-10 at halftime after another LSU penalty took a field goal off the scoreboard. After going up 17-10, Alabama recovered a fumbled LSU punt at the 3 and went in for the score on third down and the final score was set up on a 37 yd pass to the LSU 5 on third down to win 31-10.

Still,had Williams' interception return for a td held, who knows what would have happened with a 14-0 lead and if LSU had won, its doubtful the Board of Supervisors would have fired McClendon 3 days later (allowing him a lame duck '79 season).That certainly contributed to LSU's 16-14 loss and flat play in Jackson vs Miss State the next week.

I know you were dying to hear all of that.
Posted by steverehage
periphery
Member since Jan 2006
659 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 1:02 pm to
quote:

"Run Lindsey Run"

quote:

officials huddled


I was at all of the games you mentioned, but had forgotten about us being up 14-0 on Bama b4 the interception was called back.
Posted by TigerMike58
Houston, TX
Member since Aug 2010
724 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 1:29 pm to
Note the center, #54 on LSU2BILL's 1980 roster link. Name's vaguely familiar......




Posted by StewieG
Team Hawthorne
Member since Jun 2007
940 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 2:03 pm to
MM
Posted by LSU82BILL
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Member since Sep 2006
10307 posts
Posted on 7/18/11 at 3:48 pm to
quote:

Note the center, #54 on LSU2BILL's 1980 roster link. Name's vaguely familiar......


A 217 LB center...LOL. PP is listed at 222 last year. I get a kick out of Ramsey Dardar being listed at 222 in '80. I remember him being a big boy.
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