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Started By
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re: Has Smoke Laval been invited to campus since his firing?
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:24 pm to BatonrougeCajun
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:24 pm to BatonrougeCajun
quote:
Not impossible at all. Smoke was fully capable but he treated the LSU job like it was a reward for a long successful career. You can’t succeed at the level LSU expects if you aren’t a killer.
Knucklehead still holds a grudge for LSU firing Smoke. So does Sammy's.
1
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:27 pm to Tiger Ugly
I will say, nobody had a better look to be head ball coach at LSU than Smoke. It's almost like he had a genetic code for it
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:28 pm to LSUsmartass
quote:
Got slapped with injuries, but what is your point? Big Ben was 78-70 with a 3.91...is he not an all-time great at LSU?
I don't think you got the point of my post.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:32 pm to ProjectP2294
Hmm, may I didn't lol
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:33 pm to LSUsmartass
quote:
I believe I heard that baseball camp is 100% how Smoke got the job.
maybe so. Skip was pretty much doing other things and smoke was our instructor for the most part.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:40 pm to rpg37
I had lunch with him at Canes back in 2001 during the season. We were the only ones in there and we started talking in line. The guy knew baseball he just couldn’t lead a program and I almost got the feeling he didn’t want to. He kept recruiting great talent and taking teams to Omaha proved that. But the last couple years defined his failure when the ability to just have the best kids show up left when Skip was gone. Turtle brought kids for sure but Smoke wasn’t the guy kids from all over wanted to play for.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:41 pm to Lou Pai
quote:
Have seen this mentioned a few times. What did he do exactly?
Tried to turn lsu in to the ncaa about the funds for the camp money and where it was going.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:42 pm to Clark W Griswold
quote:
Turtle brought kids for sure but Smoke wasn’t the guy kids from all over wanted to play for.
Turtle shot too high on guys a lot. He had a class at Arizona State with like 6 top 15 picks. Eric Hosmer was in it I think.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 12:58 pm to josh336
Wow.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 1:10 pm to LSUsmartass
quote:pretty sure this same guy also broke the Jay Johnson news accepting the HC opening or at least saying he was major candidate weeks before it happened while the Sully & Bianco news was going on.
Fun fact, there is (or was) a poster on this site that was a pitcher whose childhood dream was to pitch at LSU. He was invited to visit LSU during Smoke's tenure but apparently Smoke was unaware. This pitcher walks into Smoke's office to introduce himself and Smoke tells him to get the frick out of his office. This pitcher went on to start in MLB and won a world series... probably would have been a top 5 all-time pitcher at LSU.
This post was edited on 6/25/25 at 1:12 pm
Posted on 6/25/25 at 1:17 pm to rpg37
I had a good friend from high school who was a pitcher for that school in Monroe under Smoke in the mid 90’s & he absolutely hated Smoke’s guts.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 1:46 pm to Tarpon08
quote:
Smoke had a pretty impossible task of following Bertman.
You are correct, no way he could continue winning championships at the rate Skip did. But to say it was impossible to match Skip's success belies the question.Remind me, how many did he win in his five year tenure. Extra point question: How many games did he win in his two trips to the College World Series. Hint: 0,0.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 2:14 pm to josh336
I think it was also skirting housing allowance rules too
Regardless it’s a real bitch move to bend the rules as a coach but tattle tale on your way for something you were a willing participant in
Regardless it’s a real bitch move to bend the rules as a coach but tattle tale on your way for something you were a willing participant in
This post was edited on 6/25/25 at 2:29 pm
Posted on 6/25/25 at 2:16 pm to rpg37
Technically he resigned
Posted on 6/25/25 at 2:16 pm to Clark W Griswold
quote:
Turtle brought kids for sure but Smoke wasn’t the guy kids from all over wanted to play for.
It probably didn’t help those teams that Smoke and Turtle despised each other
Turtle could always get guys. By 2007 he was at Arizona state and we (the Cajuns) went to play them in a 3 game set. Every player on that roster eventually played some kind of pro baseball with like 6 big leaguers.
The funniest part of that deal was former Tiger Jared Bogany followed Turtle to Arizona state but Pat Murphy didn’t like him and he would start him every game in left field and pulled him before his first at bat. If you can find the baseball stats from Arizona state 2007 check out how many starts Bogany got vs how many at bats he had
This post was edited on 6/25/25 at 2:26 pm
Posted on 6/25/25 at 2:19 pm to The Eric
Looking back, it was just a really bad hire resume wise. Smoke won 60% of his games in the southland and made the tournament 3 times in 7 years. There’d be a riot if we hired that resume today.
He had some pretty damn talented teams at LSU and didn’t do terrible. But it fell off fast and was going to be really, really bad. Skip saved the program by firing him quickly.
He had some pretty damn talented teams at LSU and didn’t do terrible. But it fell off fast and was going to be really, really bad. Skip saved the program by firing him quickly.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 2:22 pm to rpg37
quote:
since his firing?
To be fair, he resigned, but he was definitely feeling pressure after a couple 0-fer's in the CWS a couple seasons prior and failing to make a regional for the first time in almost 20 years during his final season in 2006.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 3:04 pm to rpg37
He is welcome here. He is not persona non grata. I think he chooses not to come because he is pissed that he got fired.
I think he was in over his head. I heard him give a bunch of speeches while he was here. At the beginning he was funny, eloquent and witty. Towards the end he looked like he was in a fog.
I think he was in over his head. I heard him give a bunch of speeches while he was here. At the beginning he was funny, eloquent and witty. Towards the end he looked like he was in a fog.
Posted on 6/25/25 at 3:08 pm to SemiNoblePursuit
quote:
What happened?
Yeah, no shite. That’s a hell of a thing to just throw out. It can mean a lot of things.
Posted on 6/26/25 at 8:28 pm to LSUsmartass
B Mac? Loved that guy
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