re: Let's play make-believe: McClendon wasn't forced out...

Mac had a few good years left but not many. I think we would have still began to decline. IF we got every player under Mac that we got under Stovall, I think he retired after the Sugar Bowl under Arnsparger 85(?) BUT it is true he May have died in the plane crash instead of Bo Rein

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Yes indeed - papers were signed

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You he would have gotten sued if he came back to LSU?

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Just to give you sort of an alternate persepective - Pat Burrell (Miami player) has said that even though Miami lost the baseball national championship to LSU in '96 - he knows that it was the best and most exciting game ever.

That game was much more important, and he was able to take off his green and orange tinted glasses.

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Not to be a stickler, but best and most exciting are two different things. Also its different to say it was the best college baseball game ever as opposed to the best Miami baseball game ever.

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I know it sounds strange to people who didn't actually attend the game. But if you were there...

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I get that, and it was an exciting, close game, where we almost beat the # 1 team, but it still shows a losers mentality, we had a 2nd tier team then, where beating #1 was something we didn't expect, but we got close and it was exciting. Hopefully those days are gone.

! other game to add is 2007 Florida.

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You he would have gotten sued if he came back to LSU?

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Had they gone undefeated or whatever...well, certain people can make things happen at any time.

But in 1979, I don't think B.R. people considered football (and coaching hirings/firings/rumors/activities) as important as breathing - so I just think it would have been a pretty extraordinary situation for anything to have changed.

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Charles McClendon died the day before the 2001 SEC Championship Game. Not 2003.

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I usually have a better long-term memory than this.

Can you get Alzheimer's at 28?

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we had a losing record in 81 (2 years later) and got beat by Tulane 48-7, those Sr and Jrs were McClendon's recruits.

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I meant to say Stovall's "end"

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I get that, and it was an exciting, close game, where we almost beat the # 1 team, but it still shows a losers mentality

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Would you have said this to Coach McClendon himself? He had the same praise for the game, along with quite a lot of players from that team.

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Would you have said this to Coach McClendon himself? He had the same praise for the game, along with quite a lot of players from that team.

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I would argue that the 97 and 07 UF and 03 UGA games were better.

The game itself was exciting, I would submit that being happy with a close loss is why we were a 2nd tier FB program.

McClendon's main and most significant failure = did not racially integrate the programme in line with the rest of the country, or the SEC for that matter,

and if you don't think that cost us a lot of games then you're probably blind and listen to football games on the radio

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Can you get Alzheimer's at 28?

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I developed insanity well before 28.

I always felt bad about what happened to Coach Mac. He was always a true LSU Tiger and a class gentleman as well. Coach Mac and his last team in 1979 was one of the most star crossed teams I've ever seen. 3 narrow losses to both the co national champs (USC and Bama) along with a Florida State team that went undefeated in the regular season and I think eventually ended up in the final Top Ten.

I think that Rein would had done well at LSU. Had he not ended up in Baton Rouge, he could easily have ended up at Ohio State. He was an OSU alum and here's your useless trivia for today. He played on the OSU baseball team that won the 1966 CWS.

I always liked Jerry Stovall but I think he was in over his head as head coach. He did as well as he could given the circumstances but his ianability to recruit well eventually caught up to him. His 1982 team is still one of the great mysteries of LSU football. That team could look like national champs one week and the next, they'd have you scratching your head. Nonetheless, one of the most dominating defenses ever seen at LSU, including teams from Saban's era.

ETA: I'd estimate that over the years, I've attended between 150 - 200 LSU football games. That would include both LSU - USC contests, 1979 at Tiger Stadium and 1984 at the LA Coliseum. Both games were a study in marked contrast. Tiger Stadium in '79 was by far the loudest, most insane I've ever seen or heard it to this day. In '84, there were plenty of empty seats at the Coliseum and most of the noise heard that day came from the 7,500 - 10,000 LSU fans in attendance.