re: If you're looking for a coach to credit with LSU's success

Nah I’m going with swamp king

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However, he had a clear vision of what he thought it would take to make LSU a championship program and he was DEMANDING in getting the resources necessary to make that vision a reality. The AD and BOS weren't fully on board with that vision. However, Mark Emmert helped sway them.

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This is the mistake everyone keeps making.

Every coach in this history of athletic endeavors has DEMANDED better facilities, better equipment, better assistants, better salaries, etc.

But coaches don't make money flow. They never did, and they never will.

Mark Emmert wanted a Flagship University. Emmert knew that a successful football program was the key to fundraising. He knew that LSU needed a Flagship football program to create his Flagship university. So he made the decision to get money invested in LSU football. The first part of that investment was investing in a new head coach, but he knew he would be investing more money in the program to improve facilities, staffing, recruiting, etc.

Mark Emmert made the decision to invest in LSU football before he ever hired Saban. Saban was part of his investment.

Mark Emmert built the foundation. He made the money flow where it needed to go.

I keep seeing this posted and Dinardo recruited well but it was Saban who knocked down the wall around New Orleans not Dinardo.

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LSU made Saban. Not the other way around.

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Here’s the deal

Saban was going to leave mich state so if he hadn’t come here, it would have been somewhere else that he would have built a program and had success.

LSU would have hired…. Who knows but rest assured it wasn’t going to be anyone on Saban’s level since no one really is. Word is that spurrier would have come here but even he would not have had the impact on our program.

So if you want to believe that lsu made Saban, fine. It’s all in how you look at it and I agree to an extent that we have Saban a platform from which to launch. Had he not gone to the nfl(where he flopped), he probably stays at LSU but whatever.

Point is, no other coach would have had the impact that Saban had on LSU.
I applaud LSU, skip Bertman and anyone else involved for having the judgement that they had in hiring Saban. It was a good move

You're not totally wrong in that once LSU got rid of Joe Dean as Athletic Director and actually had a former championship coach in Bertman as AD, that things started improving.

But lets stop there. LSU helped make Saban, and Saban helped make LSU. They are mutually the same.

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They are mutually the same.

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No they are not the same. Saban was a great hire for LSU, but he was only here for 5 years. He’s been gone for almost two decades, yet LSU had enjoyed sustained success - success that would be even more spectacular but for Saban working directly AGAINST LSU as coach at Alabama. To say they are the “same thing” is to suggest the past 15 years wouldn’t have happed without him. If anything, the past 15 years would have been better if LSU didn’t have to compete against Saban for recruits and on the field. Saban was a great hire, but it was LSU that made LSU.

LSU made Saban. Not the other way around.

Yes

The biggest change at LSU was that Saban demanded the ability to recruit any Louisiana player including “those city” kids. Previously there was an unwritten rule that LSU didn’t recruit certain types of black players. That is why we watched the best and most talented players in the state go to Miami, FSU, Colorado, etc during the 80s and 90s. That all changed somewhat with Dinardo and then fully with Saban.

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Skip let Saban go to Miami. Saban still had doubts about going to the pros but Skip was all for it because he didn’t want Saban overshadowing his own national championships. Skip knew Saban was building a monster.

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