re: Refresh My Memory on Why Dinardo Was Hired

I've been watching the Tigers since the last years of the Cholly Mac era. As far back as I can remember, LSU fans have been a surly and dissatisfied lot. We had to get rid of Cholly, who had presided over the greatest era of LSU football to that time. Go back and look at what the Tigers did during the 60s. They were a Top 10 of the decade kind of program.

So, we have the tragedy with Bo Rein after Cholly got the boot, then we bring in Jerry Stovall who didn't last very long. Then, we bring in the mercenary Bill Arnsparger, who had great teams, but had some of the most inexplicable losses in LSU history and couldn't seem to win a bowl game. Then, he goes to Florida where he wanted to be. Then, instead of hiring Steve Spurrier or Mack Brown in 1987, we let Arnsparger's DC Mike Archer take the reigns, and he begins our death march after the glorious 1987 season (my first season on campus). We had one more decent year in 1988 then the wheels fell off for seven straight years (2 with Archer, 5 with Hallman). Who can ever forget Curley's confidence building statement when he was first hired: "I can't promise you victories, but I can tell you one thing. This team will be competitive." The score of the Florida game in 1993 was 58-3, and we scored first.

I always liked Gerry Dinardo. His bravado was needed after 7 years mired in the muck. We beat Saban at Michigan State in our bowl game his first year. We had a 10 win season. Even his first bad year, when we went 4-7, wasn't terrible. Go back and check our scores from 1998. We had an incredibly difficult schedule that year, and every game was tight, except we got blown out by Arkansas at the end of the season. Saban came in with Dinardo's players and won right away. Dinardo left the cupboard much less bare than when he arrived.