re: Revisiting Another LSU Football Coach Hiring/Firing—Brodhead, Stovall, Arnsparger

quote:

---

Dude, everybody knows Dinardo brought back the magic.

---

Multiple people have said that was Saban and had no clue about Dinardo on this site. Us old folks remember it but there are a lot of youngsters here.

quote:

---

Make the call Woody! Bring back the freaking magic part duex.

---

Thank you for this detailed post. I've been tryin to explain Stovall situation to people freaking out about LSU Football. Most have no idea who he is except that his name's on Tiger Stadium.
Great Post.

quote:

---

Multiple people have said that was Saban and had no clue about Dinardo on this site. Us old folks remember it but there are a lot of youngsters here.

---

i remember hanging out by the comm shack on my ship in the middle of the south china sea during the uf game in 97. waiting for the score to come in.

the si issue with banks on the cover with the upset of uf in 97 also had a good article on the job saban was doing at michst. still have that magazine.

we beat notre dame in our bowl game to end that season and beat saban at michst at the end of dinardos first year.

mack brown hired carl reese away to texas after 97 and dinardo didn't even try to keep him. hired his buddy lou tepper and the magic was gone.

dinardo's first 3 seasons where good. we were on our way.

quote:

---

arnsparger did a great job here, but left to be ad at uf.

he recruited well, coached well and won ball games. i also think he woulda won a natty in 87.

---

Glad to see Bill getting some recognition.

I think he changed the understanding of "success." Before him, success was beating rivals (mostly OM and Tulane) and getting a good Bowl bid.

After, success was winning championships. I don't think bowl games meant much to him. He was 0-3 in them. In his world a bowl game was like playing a game after getting eliminated in the playoffs.

Two more points:
- Never lost to Bama
- Won SECs in '86 and '88. I know, he left after '86. But the program he built/left went on. We could have won 4 straight SECs had he stayed ('86-'89).

And Broadhead was the beat AD LSU ever had. (Woody still building his legacy) Admin and OB network ran him off. What a shame. He wanted different, better coach in 1987 but OB network still ran the show.

That 1983 season was my senior year at LSU. Stovall had a tough job from day one stepping in as coach after Bo Rein's plane crash. The 1980 team was "good" but nothing out of the ordinary other than an upset of Florida in Gainesville. The 1981 team was just terrible. A truly "bad" 3-7-1 team including the humiliating 48-7 loss to Tulane.

The 1982 was one of the most exciting teams in LSU history,but also one of the most exasperating. Upset #4 Florida in Gainesville, come home and are tied by 6-5-1 Tennessee. Beat #8 Alabama in Birmingham much worse than the 20-10 final and then lose to 5-6 Miss State. Beat Florida State 55-21 to go to the Orange, lose to 4-7 Tulane --- in Tiger Stadium.

The 1983 team was overrated to start with. A mediocre Florida State team overcame a 14-0 deficit to lead 40-21 before we made two late scores to make it look close. Of course there was a 40-14 blowout of top 10 Washington to make everyone think things were fine. Then Florida holds on for a close one, Tennessee beat us more soundly than the 20-6 score and we were beaten at homecoming by a 'scrappy' Kentucky team -- that had gone winless in 1982.

The "whispers" got louder after the loss to Ole Miss in Jackson. An Advocate sports writer wrote that an LSU assistant said in the elevator going down from the Mississippi Memorial Pressbox saying "we're gone for sure now." Stovall was livid and wanted to know who had said that,etc etc. And Brodhead declared the football program would be graded "week to week."

The next week subltly you knew it was over. Quick back story..............today's phones/cell phones/mobile phones were called and were basically "car phones." Probably the percentage of people now who DON'T have cell phones had them in 1983. Stovall did a TV commercial for a mobile phone company with a tag line "I can be reached in a moment's notice."

Alabama was coming to town for a night game. ABC called "Bottom Line Bob" and said, would you consider moving this to 11:00 for TV. (all games on TV wouldn't come for another 20+ years.It was still a treat to be on TV. But LSU had declined a similar request from CBS in 1982 to move the Florida State game to 2:30. So even Brodhead had turned tv down.) This time Brodhead didn't hesitate and said "sure." Stovall was livid claiming a night kickoff was one of LSU's best shots at winning and that he was never consulted. Brodhead claimed he never could get hold of him (all while BR TV is airing the Stovall car phone commercial.)

A "good" Alabama team held on for a 32-26 win and while Brodhead complimented LSU's effort he noted "this wasn't the best Alabama team I've ever seen." A 3-6 Mississippi State team came to Baton Rouge the next week and just obliterated LSU 45-26 (we scored late) on Senior night.

Three weeks later after the season finale win over Tulane at the Superdome. Brodhead recommended to the BOS that Stovall be fired and the vote was 13-5 to comply. Of course with this being LSU, one of the supervisors former governor John McKeithen, addressed the BOS and crowd saying Brodhead had "the finesse of an elephant."

Wild,strange time.

quote:

---

Archer couldn't recruit


No doubt that was his downfall. I think he was a good coach. Just didn't get the recruiting side. I think a probable good to great coaching career was short circuited by getting that type of gig at too big a place too early.

---

I disagree with this one. Not sure how old you are or how closely you may have followed things back then but ability to recruit wasn't Archer's problem. The problem was that Archer some how got it in his head that they couldn't win with Louisiana players. He didn't think they could make that next step from the 8-3. 9-2 level to the 10-1, 11-0 level to compete with with Nebraska, Oklahoma, miami, teams of that era with La, kids. He went out and grabbed some kids from Houston and Miami before it became a big thing like now. A bunch of them kids didn't pan out or got home sick and transferred away and it hurt the program big time.

quote:

---

Hallman deserved to be let go, but he deserves some of the credit for Dinardo's immediate success. Hallman left the program in better shape than when he found it.

Had Hallman not continued to throw the ball in the 2nd half against Auburn, who knows, he might have made it at LSU for a couple more years or even longer.

Funny how one afternoon can change so many people's lives.

---

this