ESPN Names LSU’s Biggest Archnemesis, Did They Get It Right?

By Staff ReporterAug 10, 202612:12 pmDiscuss the story15
Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
Every SEC fan base has a villain — whether it’s a rival, former coach, opposing player, or painful moment that still stings years later.

ESPN recently named the biggest archnemesis for every SEC program, with selections ranging from longtime rivals to controversial figures from the past.

For LSU, they picked former head coach Nick Saban:
quote:

LSU Tigers

Nick Saban:
Between 1988 and 1998, LSU football had eight losing seasons before hiring Michigan State coach Saban, who immediately returned the Tigers to contention, including a 13-1 season with a Sugar Bowl win and BCS national championship after the 2003 season. A year later, Saban left for the Miami Dolphins, intent on a long NFL career. But after that didn't go as planned, Saban returned to college at Alabama -- and built the greatest dynasty in the modern era. He beat LSU 21-0 for the national title after the 2011 season, then won the next seven games in the series. Saban, who went 4-1 against Alabama at LSU, finished 12-5 against LSU after joining the Crimson Tide, and even plucked Heisman winner DeVonta Smith from Louisiana. -- Dave Wilson.
Did they get it right? Who else would you pick as LSU's archnemesis?
15 Comments
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mmtiger20 min
make no mistake, Saban enjoyed beating LSU consistently.
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BIIIL40 min
Saban has been forgiven. Time to put a statue of him up outside Tiger stadium (that would anger the gumpys so even more reason to do it). I like having statues of the four coaches who led LSU to Natty's in a group outside the stadium somewhere. I'm hoping Lane will join them very soon.
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HarryHoudini1 hour
Spurrier and UF could make valid arguments for this. That dude owned us outside of ‘97. And evev in 2001 and 2003 when we won the SEC and natty they embarrassed the hell out of us.
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Yeti_Chaser1 hour
Yes but he never kept us from winning it all. Saban did, probably multiple times
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Mississippi State's John Bond deserves Honorable Mention
He touched us everytime
4-0

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*torched
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BigDaddy51512 hours
Years ago there a hype video. It talked about Saban returning to LSU Stadium. It captured our emotion with Saban accurately. This kind of HATE can only be BORN through Love. One of the most accurate hype videos of all time. Now he had everything to do with us getting Kiffin. It was Saban that told Kiffin "it is the best place there is to Coach Football."

Nick We Forgive you. We love you again. After all you are family.
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dandan2 hours
Maybe at the time while lsu was losing to him but that’s in the past.

He also helped encourage Lane to make the move to lsu. St Nick is back in good standing in my book.

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KING NOLA2 hours
I would say Florida is a very close second.
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CDawson2 hours
Saban made Bama. Bama was irrelevant before he arrived and would still be irrelevant had he never went. It was a dying program that he single handedly put back as the standard.
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wesman212 hours
I mean yeah, he was our best coach ever and also our biggest enemy. Just the way it is. That being said, Coach O still had the greatest season ever.
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TheFlyingTiger2 hours
keeping Les instead of bringing nick back from miami was our nemesis
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tiger1092 hours
Yea, I wanted him dead, but I'm over it.
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Mahootney2 hours
Saban was everyone's nemesis in the 2010's.
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Clayvet1 hour
I always liked and respected Saban. He wanted to come back to college football and Bama had the vacancy. Simple as that. Plus, because he set such a high mark at Bama, the years we were able to beat him always led to big things.
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