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

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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,

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Hey, Mr. Historian. LSU signed its first black player in 1971 exactly one year after Alabama signed its first. LSU had a black player STARTING at QB in 74. Get your facts right before you make yourself look stupid

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Tiger Stadium in '79 was by far the loudest, most insane I've ever seen or heard it to this day. I

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This is what people just seem to miss - that evening had a totally different "vibe", for lack of a better word. Whether they won or not is not the main thing at all.

That game is burned in anyone's brain who was there. I can't say that about too many sporting events - and I've been to my fair share for sure.

The most accurate description I've ever heard of that night was by someone on here who called it a "raging inferno".

That's very, very close...

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His teams always had great defenses, he Achilles Heel was, he could not beat The Bear.

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Please stop. This is as bad as the myth that the only problem with DiNardo was Lou Tepper.

McClendon couldn't beat the Bear... or Kentucky, or Ole Miss, or Indiana, or Tulane. That's why he was let go.

I was very, very young...maybe the 3rd or so game I ever saw.

People were so amped up that it almost seemed violent to me - like they were out for blood! I truly cannot think of another football game where either team could not call plays at the line of scrimmage for the entire game.

It was a night game, of course - that definitely added to it.

Definitely the only time I lost my voice at a sporting event...


People forget how that team played another #1 about six weeks later (Alabama) - closer score (3-0), but that was absolutely miserable and was a totally different game.

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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.

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You're correct that he was in over his head as coach, but you're way off base about his recruiting. He never really got a chance to coach with his last two classes which supplied much of the starting lineup for the very successful Arnsparger era. In Archer's first year, he started 7 5th year seniors that were in Stovall's 1983 class.

1983
HEAD COACH JERRY STOVALL
L Scott Bromley, Pensacola, Fla.
L Michael Brooks, Ruston, La.
B Chris Carrier, Eunice, La.
L Toby Caston, Monroe, La.
L Tommy Clapp, Gretna, La.
L Darryl Colona, Hammond, La.
L Mike Cooley, Satsuma, Ala.
B Garry Cunningham, Covington, La.
B Rob Cutbirth, Kenner, La.
B Kevin Guidry, Lake Charles, La.
B Derik Hare, Milton, Fla.
B Mickey Harris, Mandeville, La.
L John Hazard, Metairie, La.
L George Henriquez, New Orleans, La.
L Tommy Howard, Columbus, Miss.
B Stan Humphries, Shreveport, La.
B Garland Jean Batiste, St. Martinville, La.
B Norman Jefferson, Marrero, La.
L Mike Johnson, Baton Rouge, La.
B Oscar Joiner, Leesville, La.
L Brian Kinchen, Baton Rouge, La.
B Rogie Magee, Bogalusa, La.
L Darren Malbrough, New Orleans, La.
B Steve Nix, Baton Rouge, La.
B James Pierson, New Orleans, La.
B Mike Reed, Monroe, La.
B Ray Tatum,Winnsboro, La.
L Henry Thomas, Houston, La.
L Ronnie Yearby, Columbia, La.

1982
HEAD COACH JERRY STOVALL
L Mitch Andrews, Houma, La.
L Scott Bailey, LaPlace, La.
L Roland Barbay, Chalmette, La.
B Karl Bernard, Baton Rouge, La.
L Mike Breaux, Lafayette, La.
L Jeff Brignac, Metairie, La.
L Bryan Broaddus, Dallas, Texas
L Ray Brock, Beaverton, Ore.
L Shawn Burks, Baton Rouge, La.
L Mike Cobb, New Orleans, La.
B Chris Cruz, Pensacola, Fla.
B Mike DeWitt, Laurel, Miss.
L Curt Gore, Fairhope, Ala.
B Dalton Hilliard, Patterson, La.
B Garry James, Gretna, La.
L Tony Nephew,Willis, Texas
L Clarence Osborne, Baton Rouge, La.
B Doug Powell, Houston, Texas
B Craig Rathjen, Houston, Texas
B Steve Rehage, Metairie, La.
L Archie Sutton, New Orleans, La.
B Jeff Wickersham, Merritt Island, Fla.
L Karl Wilson, Baton Rouge, La.

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McClendon couldn't beat the Bear... or Kentucky, or Ole Miss, or Indiana, or Tulane. That's why he was let go.

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Total bullshite from a complete idiot. You probably weren't even born then.

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Ah you're right, you got me. It wasn't like he was losing five games a year to teams like that. The history books are lying.

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You act like LSU was dropping 5 games every year. It didn't no matter how much you would like to believe it.

I used to know some guys who played for coach Mac and they would have done anything for him. They thought the world of him.
They felt like his achilles heel was his loyalty to guys who had coached for him for years. The game was starting to pass them by. Times were changing and offenses were changing, recruiting was changing and Mac and his coaches didn't change with the times.
Of note is how many of the guys who coached with Mac coached anywhere after Coach Mac got fired.

"The game was starting to pass them by. Times were changing and offenses were changing, recruiting was changing and Mac and his coaches didn't change with the times."

This is correct. Coach Mac tried different offensive systems as the 70s progressed--notably the Veer--and they weren't enough to keep up with the competition. Plus, Bert Jones and Andy Hamilton turned out to be irreplaceable.

The game was changing. Weight training was one example. As a "student reporter" John Ed Bradley wrote in SI about the USC game, that the USC players' legs were bigger than LSU's players' waists.

It was sad, but the game just passed him by. It happened to Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and maybe even...Steve Spurrier.

Yep. So much speculation. What if we won that 1979 Florida State game, convinced Bobby Bowden it would be worthwhile to leave for LSU, and he was our coach for 30 years?