re: Old timers, why did lsu hire Gerry dinardo?

Charlie Cusimano wanted Dinardo. He was a key member on the BOS and when Dean failed to deliver, Cusimano got his way.
Initially it went well. Dinardo put together a good staff and recruiting improved. He got Faulk to stay home. He got us back in bowls.
Unfortunately his staff fell apart and he failed to replace good coaches with good coaches. His last two years were a disaster.
Fortunately he did leave some talent for the next coach and he knew how to build upon what he had. He hired good coaches and recruited even better. That started the best twenty years of LSU football ever.

100% correct.

Not real sure... his record at Vandy wasn't great. I guess Joe Dean thought he was a great recruiter and that would translate to success on field. I met him once... he was recruiting Sam Forehand in Vancleave, MS. Met him and David Kelly for lunch. Nice guy. He stressed that his assistants know all the HS HC's in LA. I mentioned a particular town and he asked Kelly, "And who is HC there David?" lol

Dinardo actually had a degree of success at Vandy (he was 19-25 in 4 seasons there, that was better than Hallman's 16-28 during the same period at LSU).

Dinardo didn't offer any false hope upon his arrival at LSU; at SEC Media Day prior to the 1995 season, he would not say if LSU football was in better shape then than Vandy was when he left there. Nevertheless he brought in a big share of highly regarded recruits to LSU.

And he achieved a tremendous coup which will ever endear him to LSU football fans: he orchestrated a "Bring Back The Magic" campaign in 1995, a key component of which involved restoring LSU's tradition of white jerseys at home, which had attained mythical status as far back as the late 1950s, and had acquired a sense of urgency after 6 straight losing seasons wearing home purples.

Because Joe Dean was as cheap as an AD can be. When Gerry Dinardo came to LSU his staff was the 7th highest paid staff in the 12 team SEC. Mississippi State was poaching LSU's staff for crying out loud. So when Dinardo would lose a coach to some other school he was trying to hire on the cheap because of the limitations put on him by Joe Dean.

Dinardo was not even supposed to get the job. Joe Dean had hired Pat Sullivan from TCU and already announced the hire. When Pat Sullivan returned to TCU they wanted their
$400,000 buyout. Joe Dean told Pat Sullivan that he was responsible for his buyout and LSU was not paying it. Pat Sullivan then backed out of the LSU job and stayed at TCU. Enter Gerry Dinardo. Dinardo was one of the 2 finalists for the LSU job but had "withdrawn his name" a day before Pat Sullivan had been named LSU's Head Coach. Now LSU had to go "Hat In Hand" to Gerry Dinardo and beg him to take the job. It was an embarrassing and incompetent display by Joe Dean.

Just imagine if Gerry Dinardo had said no. Joe Dean was an absolute disaster as an AD.

He drove his car off into Campus Lake while driving in front of the Sorority Houses.

He had a hit & run when he rear ended a car in Southdowns. Nobody could find Joe Dean for hours after that happened. Joe was finally founf and he said he didn't think there was any damage to the other vehicle so he had simply left. The other vehicle had approximately $1500 in damage.

He backed into a Baton Rouge Police car at a Baseball Regional when he was leaving to go see a Tennis Match. The Police Car followed Joe Dean across Campus with lights and Sirens on but Joe Dean drove over to the Tennis Match and ignored the Cops. After the idiot stopped he stated he didn't see or hear anything.

Joe Dean actually wanted to retain Curley Hallman and not fire him after Hallman had posted a 16-28 record in 4 years as LSU's head coach. Attendance had dropped to maybe 60,000 per game but Joe dean did not care, He had to be forced to make a change by BOS members. He was a true Idiot.

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The better question is why did LSU hire Curley Hallman....

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He had success at USM

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The better question is why did LSU hire Curley Hallman....

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Because he was a coach that was close by at Southern Miss that was riding the coattails of Bret Farve to wins over Alabama and Florida State...

To bring back the magic

I'm too lazy to look it up, but DiNardo/Vandy either tied, or slightly exceeded, LSU's SEC record during the Hallman years. Given Vandy's high academic standards for admission, that was seen as a big accomplishment. It's rare when Einstein can both ace his chemistry/physics exam AND play somewhat respectable football in the SEC.

However, in DiNardo's last game at Vandy, his team got the dog shite beaten out them by Tennessee, 65 - 0. So that's the memory/impression a lot of LSU fans had when his name was announced as a candidate. Plus, it was seen as a desperation move from Joe Dean that we had to rob the head coach of perennial SEC doormat Vanderbilt.

Between the very public Pat Sullivan buyout debacle of announcing, and then recanting, the hire on ESPN, and the stigma of choosing the coach of a perennial loser, from a public perception standpoint, our name and image was about as low as I can remember in my lifetime (I'm 60, soon to be 61).

But then, and I'll give a lot of credit to an unknown staffer, someone wrote the masterful "Bring Back The Magic" speech DiNardo gave at his introduction. After that speech, people softened from "let's tar and feather Gerry D," to "let's give him a chance." From there, the rest is history.