re: Honestly, had you ever heard of "Nick Saban" before his arrival to LSU

Yes, definitely heard of him. He and Kirk Ferentz at Iowa were considered the two big up-and-comers in the coaching world. Like others have said, when we played them in the Independence Bowl, there was already a lot of speculation about him jumping to the NFL; it was basically assumed he was just waiting for the right spot to open up.

It seemed kind of weird at the time, as Dinardo was being spoken of as Paterno's replacement (LSU was considered a stepping stone then, especially compared to a program like that), and yet the media was still all about Saban. And then we rolled the Spartans, and Saban was still hailed as the better coach.

BTW, the poster that commented that LSU was hiring coaches like Les Miles is also wrong. Miles was also an up-and-comer; LSU had been hiring from the good ole boy network. Mac was on Dietzal's staff; they tried to get some new blood with Bo Rein but he died, so Stovall came from the network. Arnsparger was then an old NFL coordinator looking for a cush job, and then we hired Archer, again a coordinator from the previous staff like Mac. Curley was then a good ole boy from the South; then Dinardo came via Vandy (he made them respectable).