In 1997 LSU was preseason ranked #5. I shite you not

Washington, North Carolina and Colorado all in the Top Six. #IWantMy90s

Michigan 17- undefeated and split the natty
Nebaraska 8-

must have been nice not knowing in august who was going to be playing in the national championship

I don’t know why people think EVERY year in the 80’s and 90’s were terrible. The 80’s saw two SEC Championships and the mid to late 90’s LSU was better than just about everyone in the SEC not named Florida or Tennessee.

If I remember correctly, Jamie Howard's recruiting class, which would have been around 1992 or so, was ranked number one in the country

You have to remember we started top 10 in 1998 as well. #8.

Faulk returns, seems like we are all set to blow up, and the fricking wheels fall off.

Smoke Auburn on the road, move up to #6, then a great although frustrating game against UGA, then drop games to UF and fricking Tim Couch and Mike Leach in Kentucky.

Get a win over a really good MSU team to steady the ship a bit and then fricking 0-4 down the stretch.


Just none of it made sense.


As a DiNardo guy, how could you not be after 95-97, it was painful watching things unravel.


Then failing to make changes that offseason led to the undeniable 99 debacle of a season.


I truly hope the O fans don’t find themselves in a similar position at some point, not that things will ever get to that 99 level again, because it sucks watching someone you had so much faith in just blow it.


Of course it worked out great in the long run, so change isn’t always a bad thing if the administration is willing to do what it takes to find the best the country has to offer

The Tigers were ranked #8 in 1998, and held that lofty position thru the first 3 games (victories over Ark.St., Auburn and Idaho). This Tiger team proceeded to go 1-7 the remainder of the season (2-6 in SEC play).

I’ll never forget losing to Ole Miss the week after knocking off #1 Florida. What a let down that was.

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In 1997 LSU was preseason ranked #5. I shite you not

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Why is this shocking? Dinardo recruited some talent and had a few good years. He left Saban with enough talent to win the Peach and Sugar Bowls. Of course, Saban then took it to a whole new level. Dinardo's downfall was weak coordinator hires.

The ranking of #5 by the NYT in no way reflected the thinking of the AP, the major poll at the time. At any rate, LSU was AP preseason #10 in 1997. In 1998, LSU was preseason #9 and got as high as #6, after week 4, before totally falling apart in a home game against Georgia (with Champ Bailey and Quincy Carter) thanks to Lou Tepper's D. The rest of that year went steadily downhill, resulting in a 4-7 record, and DiNardo was fired with one game left.

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