re: Arnsparger--Forgotten era

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I was a student at LSU during this time. Archer was getting a lot of play in the media as a great young coach. This was before 24-7 coverage so maybe the reporting was biased. It all felt good, we commoners just knew that Bill had saved our program after the Rein tragedy, installed the next great young coach and then he had gone home to retire. None of that held true.

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I was there, too. There was a press conference outside the stadium right after Jerry Stovall was fired, and we were yelling out the window "We love ya Jerry!" from a North Stadium dorm room. Arsparger turned out to be an odd but good "temporary" solution, but the fact that he even wanted to be a head coach at the college level was a little strange. Certainly in those days when there wasn't so much money at stake, these decisions didn't get the scrutiny and public buy in that's required today. No way you could hire an Arnsparger-type coach at an elite program today.