re: Ask yourself this question

I am old enough to remember when Paul Dietzel's LSU won the national championship, even though I was only about 9 years old at the time. I remember my uncle and older cousin jumping up and down beside the radio as Billy Cannon ran his way into Tiger legend on Halloween Night. I remember Cholly Mac taking over when Dietzel left, and the Tigers losing heartbreakers and also those amazing wins. Texas, Arkansas, Notre Dame... (that one was a 0-3 loss, but what a game! The next week, LSU actually rose in the polls as a result); bowl invites and all that great stuff. Like how many times did we beat Tulane 62-0? Nelson Stokley (a precursor to Archie Manning's QB style) was electric. George Bevan. Alexander the Great. And Sammy Grezaffi, Tommy Casanova, and Bert Jones. Then the bottom fell out and we went through some rough decades before a new coach came in 2001 and wrote an entirely new chapter to LSU's story. He set the Tigers on a really upward course that was then picked up by Les Miles and maintained (sometimes even almost surpassed) with great success for quite a while. I've loved LSU and been a fan through it all.

How can you separate love from LSU from love for their performance and storied tradition? It's not an either/or. It's a both/and.

Which explains the levels of emotion directed at certain persons and coaches, relative to what might look like the start of a slide and performance failures. None of us want that to happen; we all love our Tigers too much.

It's just that some of us think it's time to change. And others don't.

I graduated from Lsu in 1999, one of the worst years in recent memory. Hal Hunter was the interm head coach for the final game and I think we beat R Kansas. So I have been through some tough times. I far from a bandwagon fan. I have gone to every bowl game Lsu has played in since 1999 and tons of road games. My last 2 trips to Oxford have been brutal and that's enough to loose a lot of faith but after what I learned yesterday my love for Lsu runs a lot deeper than wins and looses.

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For those of us who hung in there during the 90's, there is only one answer to you question. Basing your support on performance only is fare weathered fandom.

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Exactly. I love the fall more when the team performs well, but I don't love LSU less when they don't perform as expected. LSU could go 0 - 12 over the next 5 years in a row, and I would still get a chill up my spine when I hear those 4 notes, watch that band come down Victory Hill, and reminisce about all the times 21 year old young man made my life very happy.

I was very frustrated when Lou Tepper wasted the prolific offenses of 1998 and 1999.

I was very frustrated that it took undermanned Tennessee team's inability to count for us to beat them.

I've been very frustrated at Les Miles for his inability to manage game clocks, personnel, make adjustments, and let incompetent assistants keep their jobs for too long.

1/9, to me, is as puzzling as it is frustrating.

But I love LSU. I don't ever remember not loving LSU. I can't imagine not loving LSU. I'll always love them. They are my team.

People easily forget that it's just a game, and it shouldn't have any impact on their lives (unless you're a player or coach).

Those that get so upset that they throw/break things, or let the outcome of a game dictate how the rest of their week will go have some sort of issues deep down inside.

Sure I wish LSU could win every game by eleventy billion points, and hold their opponents to negative yards every week, but none of that will ever happen, and win or lose the sun is gonna come up the next morning, and i'm gonna go on with my life.

The only thing I can control is whether I watch the games or not, and if it ever gets to a point where i'm miserable after a loss then I need to reevaluate my life and find something better to do on a Saturday night.

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No. The walk from the Dome to my B&B late at night on 01/09/2012 made me realize that.

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yeah no shite not to mention all the suffering we went through in the 90's yet still supported the tigers.

Yes!
If not we would still have Curley Hallman. How many Butts were in the stadium during Curley's last season.
How many Butts were in the Arena during Trent's last season.

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mcgwyergolf

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Great post. Enlightening. Wish more fans would take this approach. I get mad as hell and bitch and moan with the best of them but in the end I still love my tigers and will defend them against anyone other team who talks smack. Again, great post.

Thanks for the responses! I have probably posted over a thousand times on this site but it won't show you that. I have been tossed more than an underage guy in tigerland. This is the first post where no one criticized my grammar or said something about my momma. I guess deep down we are all passionate and never wrong!