re: Saban did not build LSU into a powerhouse. Mark Emmert did.

quote:

---

I'll give you this. Saban doesn't come to lsu without Dinardo. Getting Faulk was massive.

---

I've always said this. Dinardo showed glimpses of what LSU could be and made the job attractive for a smart, ambitious coach like Saban. I think that '95 Independence Bowl against Michigan State was big too. He got to see LSU athletes up close and personal and didn't forget. And that was Dinardo's 1st year, so he inherited most of that team from, loathe as I am to give him any credit at all, Hallman. The team had dudes, just needed the right leader. And I think Saban filed that away.

Like he probably filed away the '97 upset of Florida. You couldn't beat a '97 Florida team without dudes. And I'm sure he noticed the loss to Ole Miss the next week as well and knew Dinardo wasn't the guy to get LSU to where he thought he could. And he knew he could win at Michgan State, but only to a point, and he was waiting until the timing was right, and he had won enough there and built up enough juice to jump to a bigger job. I'm sure he had a plan for his career and had a handful of jobs that he would leave for when the timing was right.

And I do think Emmert was huge in helping make the job attractive. But make no mistake, Saban was interviewing LSU as much as the other way around. He knew he could get the dudes to play here, but he wasn't going to come here without an admin that was committed to his vision, and Emmert convinced him he would have full support to implement it. The original "alignment."

So yeah, Dinardo played a part by taking a team full of freaks to Shreveport in December of '95. But, very similar to Orgeron, one of the best things he did to make the job attractive is just how fast he fell and got fired. Failed and fired so quickly that the roster didn't have time go to shite, so the job came open with a bunch of talent still there. The timing was perfect for Saban--he knew he had to do a program/athletic department/university culture change/rebuild, but also knew the talent was there to win pretty quickly and get the momentum going and be able to see some on-field fruits of that Year 1, which he did by taking a 3-8 team into an 8-4 team.

That 2000 team gets lost a bit, but deserves a lot of credit. Was 2-2, coming off a bad home loss to UAB, then pulled off the upset against Tennessee in OT to basically salvage the season. Then finished by winning 5 of their last 6, including the Peach Bowl against #15 Gergia Tech in Atlanta (shoutout to Rohan, Tommy Banks, and Brandon Winey). But if they don't win that Tennessee game, that season could have easily ended 4-7/5-6 without a bowl trip and that incredible '01 class that became the foundation for the '03 championship probably wouldn't have been as good. That Peach Bowl win was huge for off-season momentum and buy-in, both from the players and the admin. A lot easier to swallow the dictatorial demands of an ornery outsider from West Virginia when he had 1st year, on-field receipts.