re: Poll - Rank LSU's head coaches for the past 50 years...

1. Saban
2. McClendon
3. Arnsparger
4. Dietzel
5. Miles
6. Dinardo
7. Archer
8. Stovall
9. Hallman

SABAN (without a doubt)
Dietzel
Arnsparger
Miles (sorry, he's just too goofy)
DiNardo
blah
blah
blah...

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3t. Miles
3t. Saban

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Uhhh...do you even know what our record was this year?? Dude, we just finished our worst season in 10 years. Pay closer attention to the actual games.

1. Saban
2. Dietzel
3. Arnsparger
4. Miles
5. McClendon
6. Dinardo
7. Stovall
8. Archer
9. Hallman

the difference between miles and saban:

saban built a powerhouse, miles inherited one

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Where do I begin? He brought the fans back. He brought the life back. He even brought a new facility here.

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Dietzel brought the fans back. Tinsley had an up and down time at LSU, but his last three seasons were 13-16-3. Interesting, Dietzel couldn't have become Dietzel today, because he had three terrible seasons to start, 13-18-2, which would easily get him fired today (unless he was Curley Hallman), and we wouldn't have had him as the coach for the '58 season. Dietzel also had to revamp the entire way the football team and program operated, and was a pioneer of platoon football in an era where guys played both ways, and there were rules that limited substitutions. He brought "the fans",so-to-speak, by drastically expanding the fanbase at large. (Of course the smartest thing he did was hire Mac to run the defense. Everything else was the inevitable consequence of that.)

And I reject the notion that a guy can't come in and be "great" (i.e. McClendon and Miles) unless he takes over a program in shambles. Winning 45 games in 5 years is a mark of greatness, regardless if the fans are not gone, such that they don't have to be "brought back".

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He won 137 games. He was Dietzel's DC for his great years. He had 5 consecutive 9 win seasons. His 1969 team was as good a team LSU ever fielded (maybe not better than 1958, but as good). He had 1 losing season and 1 even season out of 18

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and he won ONE SEC championship in 18 freakin years. Like I said, just because you coached here the longest, doesn't make you the BEST. Who cares how many games he won in 18 years, of course its more than others b/c he was here longer. Look at winning percentage and Miles and Saban are better. Look at championships, Miles/Saban/Dietzel are better. You acknowledge Miles, Saban, Dietzel all accomplished MORE than Mac in less time, yet you have Mac on top.

So your arguments for him being the BEST LSU coach EVER is that he was a good DC under Dietzel, had one really great team and coached a long time so piled up a decent win total, although never really winning anything of significance in that time period?

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So your arguments for him being the BEST LSU coach EVER is that he was a good DC under Dietzel, had one really great team and coached a long time so piled up a decent win total, although never really winning anything of significance in that time period?

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Mc was up against tougher competition with the Bear at Bama. Dietzel really had 2 or 3 very good teams and then average to good teams after that.

Miles and Saban did not have enough time to prove that they can maintain excellence. Besides, it was much harder to win a NC in the past when there was rare interconference play and media played a large part in who was chosen. Still not great today, but better than before.

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So your arguments for him being the BEST LSU coach EVER is that he was a good DC under Dietzel, had one really great team and coached a long time so piled up a decent win total, although never really winning anything of significance in that time period?

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No, he was a GREAT DC, maybe the best ever at LSU, he was responsible, at least partially for the 1958 championship (for which I give him partial credit, and has a higher winning percentage of any modern LSU coach, except Saban and Miles. And he won 137 wins. Not a "decent" win total, but the most ever, almost double the #2 guy (Moore), almost triple #3 and #4 (Saban and Dietzel) and almost quadruple #5 (Miles.) Those guys have "decent" win totals, Moore, "very decent".

And he didn't "coach a long time" and built up a "win total", he was able to keep coaching because he was a winner. Your boy from West Virginia - he won 48 games in 5 years, which is an average of 9.6 wins, to 16 losses, or 3.2 losses, which averaged almost 13 games/season.

If you take the other candidates in the top 5, which are Miles, Arnsparger, Saban and Dietzel, they combined, not counting 2008, for 18 seasons of football - their combined records:

158-54-5, versus Mac's 137-59-7, is pretty damned respectable, and he was there, every day for nearly 20 years. Hell, Dietzel only had one great year, and one pretty good year (out of seven), and Saban and Miles only had 1 great year. The 10 win seasons under Saban and Miles, honestly are the equivalent of the 9s in the 60s. And Mac had two of the three best LSU teams to not win a national championship (1962 and 1969), the other being 1961.

Mac had an Achilles heel - Alabama. Dietzel had three losing seasons (out of 7). Saban couldn't handle Auburn (or UAB). Miles has had a 4th year setback. Anyway, go back to thinking that Saban and Arnsparger were the best coaches ever at LSU - they weren't, but that's okay.