re: Where are all DiNardo's national championships?

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A few of the most fun LSU games I've ever been to were the consecutive Independence bowls where Dinardo's teams beat Michigan St (coached by Saban) and Notre Dame.

Those wins were huge for getting kids from Louisiana wanting to come back to LSU....

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This is absolutely true. Those two seasons were pivotal in Saban's quick turnaround, not so much for the depth chart that Dinardo left him with, but rather the doors in Louisiana that Dinardo opened for him.
When LSU played in the Independence Bowl, Dinardo held pregame practices at high schools around Shreveport and invited fans to come and watch. There were big crowds and the players signed autographs and posed for pictures, etc.
In the months that followed, you saw LSU bumper stickers and posters cropping up in North Louisiana. During the McLendon-Stovall-Archer-Hallman years, the northern part of the state rooted for Arkansas and the Dallas Cowboys. The Shreveport newspapers sent writers to cover the Razorbacks and Cowboys.
I give Dinardo credit for being the impetus that helped to change that. Then Saban came, won quickly...and we've never looked back.