re: Charlie Mac and Les Miles

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During Mac's 18 year tenure at LSU, the Tigers were 137-59-7, and only Bama in the SEC had more wins during that period. During the next 18 years the Tigers were 117-84-6 and UF, Tenn, Bama, Auburn and UGa won more games during that period.

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Are you seriously blaming EIGHTEEN frickING YEARS on getting rid of Mac? The first nine years after he was gone were better than the last nine years he was here. The downslide didn't happen until TEN YEARS after he was gone. He would have been gone on his own by that time in any case. Hiring Mike Archer, NOT firing Charles McClendon, is what caused the downfall of LSU football.

Tiger-n-ATL, you dont make major coaching decisions half-way through a season, you wait until the end of the season. It only would make your team play worse during the second half of the year to have an entire new scheme set into place. Secondly, you wait until the end of the year because it is the right/classy thing to do. Also, you want more time when replacing a major position coach or head coach. You dont want to make the same mistake twice.
C'mon, you know better.

I'm not sure that the firing of Mac led to the disaster years more than Bo Rein's plane going down. That set in motion a chain of events which were not all bad. The Arnsbarger years were not a disaster not even Archer's first couple of years, but most of the 90's? That was Brett Farve's fault for masking the inadequacies of a horrible coach.

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It was when he couldn't consistently beat the likes of Mississippi State that he got on the hotseat.

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Well, it's kinda hard to get to Bama's level if you lose to the More Cowbell crowd so we agree on that much.

I didn't say he got fired because he lost to Bama, I said because he wasn't on the same level with Bama, who was the measuring stick in the SEC at that time. The measuring stick of late has been Florida, though it may be switching back to Bama or perhaps both will stay at that level. Clearly, LSU has been just below that level in 2008 and 2009.

But my comments (not that you bothered to read them) were in response to the following statement of fact:

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During Mac's 18 year tenure at LSU, the Tigers were 137-59-7, and only Bama in the SEC had more wins during that period.

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And yes, it's a fact that Mac 2nd 9 years were worse than his first 9 years, meaning he wasn't close to catching up to Bama, he was only slipping further. Which is exactly why people are comparing Mac to Miles -- people fear that LSU losing at least 3 SEC games is about to become the new norm. Mac lost at least 2 SEC games and sometimes 3 or 4 (back when we only played 6 conference games per year) every year from 1974 to 1979. Despite all that, LSU still finished second only to Bama during his tenure, which says more about the inconsistency of other SEC schools during the 1960s and 1970s than it does about LSU's greatness during that period.

So I get the apprehension about Miles. But it won't matter... he is gone to Michigan next year because he won't pass that job up a second time. Bank on it. The coach that many LSU fans can't stand is a perfect fit for a Michigan team hungry to win again.

Check this out. Mac's record versus the SEC in descending order (Delta).



Due to the unbalanced schedule in those days, it's hard to make much of the games versus UGA, Tenn, Vandy and even Auburn since we played each team 4 or fewer times during Mac's tenure. Throwing out those games, you see that we were about even with Florida (nowhere near as good as today's Florida) and Ole Miss (nowhere near as good after Archie left and desegregation). Then you see the complete arse whopping Bama put on us during Mac's tenure. Now you have a complete picture... LSU was a perennial also ran that during the later part of Mac's tenure was struggling to win half their conference games.

Tennessee was pretty good during most of Mac's tenure but fell on hard times in the mid 70s (otherwise the Vols would have had a better record). Ole Miss' suckitude started in 1972. Florida was competitive until the late 70s, culminating in an awful 0-10-1 season in 1979. Similar story for Auburn, which was very competitive under Shug Jordan but only mediocre for much of the mid to late 70s. Georgia had fits and spurts under Dooley but remained competitive.

So, again, Mac's record is 2nd best in the SEC during his tenure largely because he was a consistent winner and because so many other SEC teams sucked in the mid to late 70s (with one notable exception). Regardless, he couldn't get to the same level as Bama and when he did, he couldn't stay there for long.