re: The 1988 football schedule

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Texas A&M
@Tennessee
@Ohio State
@Florida
Auburn

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I would replace Florida with Miami on that list. UF still hadn't even won a conference title yet. They always played us tough, but at the time LSU had a winning series record vs the Gators and they weren't considered very strong yet - Emmitt Smith was only in his second year.

I was at that 88 Miami too. The funny thing is how many people say they were there - and stayed to the end. Well, I was there to the end, and that was one damn empty stadium.

The monsoon was over by half time if I remember right, and LSU was getting the ball down 20-3 with a chance to bring the margin to 10, when I think there was a turn over or something. I remember a bottle coming out of the stands onto the field and Eric Hill (?) picking it up and hurling it back into the student section. I remember thinking I didn't want to be on the receiving end of THAT bottle. The thing was the Tigers had already clinched a share of the SEC title, and the the fans were throwing shite on the field. LSU has always had its share of uptight assholes.

But the storm in the first half... I remember the rain would come in waves - sideways. Everytime it would blow in to where we couldn't hardly see the field, the crowd would go NUTS. You have to give oit to Miami for that game, they kept their cool. I remember watching one of the SEC pennants come down over the South upper deck - Vanderbilt's, I think. Figures, weak asses.

Your assumption that SMU was a cupcake back then is waaaay off base. They were a solid team

Hallman, another inconsistent coach, was the problem, not the schedule.

I'd rather we played nothing but tough guys OOC, record be damned, as long as the coaching was high quality, both in-game, in player development, and recruiting.

Today I'd say LSU is B-, B-, and A- in those phases.

the 1990 fsu-lsu game was the first i ever saw in person

I blame that drunk, Joe Dean for the downward spiral back in those days. He went cheap arse and LSU got what he paid for. BTW, what are all of Joe Deans past hires doing now? I mean, what major colleges are they coaching at right now. Joe Dean as an athletic director sucked more than a glass of gin.

Most of Archer's recruits never saw the field. His recruiting classes were full of 4 and 5 star problem children, many from Texas. This was the beginning of the slide. I remember a coach in Texas predicting Archer's and LSU's demise.

That fricking Ohio State game, in which a superior LSU team GAVE that game to on inferior Ohio State team, was a ball buster....I remember that like it was yesterday. I believe that was the same weekend that the Advocate had a huge spread on their sports page about Mike Archer.

June 1989, opening meeting for Summer conditioning:

Milt Williams (SCC) walks in wearing his typical bi-polar scowl - "You guys are all walking around like you've done something. Did you forget what happened last game? You are nothing but a bunch of pussies!"

Follows it up with threats of working us to death, then walks out.


You would expect a hoora! reaction.....nope, he got the opposite reaction with the starters saying frick him. College football players are more complex than high school. Granted Milt was mentally challenged.

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UF still hadn't even won a conference title yet. They always played us tough, but at the time LSU had a winning series record vs the Gators and they weren't considered very strong yet - Emmitt Smith was only in his second year.

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They weren't far removed from a very strong run 1983 to 1985. In '83, they were the only loss for national champion Miami, and that was a 28-3 whipping that, at the time, was the worst loss a national champion had ever suffered. They actually did win the 1984 SEC title, only to have it stripped and vacated due to their NCAA rules violations. In 1985, though on probation, they were an extremely good team and spent at least a good part of the season ranked in the top 2 or 3 in the AP poll. As I recall, they had slipped a bit in '86 and '87, but were still a very solid team.

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I would replace Florida with Miami on that list.

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It wasn't a listing of our toughest opponents, it was simply our first five games of the season. That run of three back-to-back-to-back road games was a killer, and sure enough, accounted for two of our three regular season losses that year.

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Curley Hallman, for all his faults, did manage to turn that around, and stocked us with a lot of talent for Gerry DiNardo to win with.

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I remember that RB class he signed with Jermain Williams and a couple others - one of which i don't think ever even made it to class. But there were three out and out studs. Come to think of it, I don't think any of them finished their eligibility.

But I think it was considered one of the top classes that year.