re: Why did LSU hire Dinardo

He did partition the NCAA and SEC so that LSU could wear White Jerseys again at home.

I posted this a few years ago. I live in Nashville. Mack Brown was a dear friend. The late Steve Carter who was assoc AD at LSU called me and asked me to call Mack toi see if he was interested in HC at LSU. Mack was out recruiting so I spoke to Darryl Moody (also a friend). Mack's dear friend and fellow coach at Carolina.

Moody found Mack and Called me back telling me not interested. I suggested they take a look at Dinardo who was coaching at Vandy.

A week or so later Dinardo was the HC at LSU.

Sorry bout that.

He made Vandy competitive in the SEC, and Joe Dean was a cheap bastard.

The true, factual story is this:

The decision to fire the Biggest Coaching Mistake LSU Ever Made, Curley Hallman, came after the 1994 Tigers lost to Southern Freakin' Miss in front of 40,000 in Tiger Stadium.

Dean, who only saw the dollar signs in everything, used a coaching hiring firm and the firm recommended Pat Sullivan, whose TCU team had just gone 7-4 and played in the Independence Bowl. Sullivan, an Auburn guy who won the 1971 Heisman, was in his third season at TCU but dearly wanted to return to the SEC.

The search firm also recommended Dinardo, who was 19-25 in four seasons at Vandy.

Sullivan had a $1 million buyout on his contract, which was something new at the time. But Sullivan assured Joe Dean that the buyout would be no problem and LSU wouldn't have to worry about it.

They flew in both Sullivan and Dinardo on the same day for interviews. (I have no idea why. I think it had something to do with the chancellor Bud Davis' schedule and wanting to meet with both candidates). Sullivan was whisked in and out in the morning, Dinardo in the afternoon.

At the end of the day, Dean was ready to officially offer Sullivan the job. But Sullivan had talked to the TCU athletic director, a guy named Frank Windegger, and was told that the $1 million buyout wasn't negotiable.
Sullivan couldn't (or wouldn't) pay it, so he told Dean, expecting Joe to pay it.

I remember Dean saying it wasn't so much the money, but the idea that Sullivan had been less than forthcoming about it. So he had second thoughts about Sullivan and turned to Dinardo, who had impressed people during his visit. As I recall, Dinardo accepted the job the next day.

Some people understandably never forgave Sullivan at TCU. He had an 11-22 record over the next three seasons and was fired. He never got another D1 coaching job.

Dinardo is important, though, because he provided a positive bridge for LSU after the disastrous Hallman seasons. His first three seasons in Baton Rouge were winning seasons. Going from Carl Reese to Lou Tepper as defensive coordinator was Dinardo's downfall.

But he did something interesting. LSU was invited to the 1995 Independence Bowl -- LSU's first bowl game in seven seasons! Dinardo decided to treat it like a celebration, not a consolation prize. He had the team arrive early and each day the Tigers practiced at one of the high schools in the Shreveport area. Big crowds showed up to watch the Tigers and take pictures.

At that time not all of Louisiana was LSU fans. The people in north Louisiana tended to cheer for the Dallas Cowboys, not the Saints, and some even followed the Arkansas Razorbacks.
But after Dinardo and the Independence Bowl week, people seemed to look at LSU differently. Of course it helped that Dinardo's next two teams went 9-2 and 8-3.

It was a turning point in uniting the state behind the Tigers.

Saban came next. But don't forget it was Dinardo who recruited Rohan Davey, Josh Reed, Trev Faulk and Bradie James, who all became leaders on Saban's early teams.

Had we hired Sullivan, I think it would have been disastrous. But Dinardo overall was a positive hire because he advanced the program from the Curley Hallman years.

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The true, factual story is this:

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Agreed. He had decent success in his 1st and 2nd year.

Short Dinardo story: I was a student back then and I attended Spring practice in April of '98 and had my SI cover magazine and a Sharpie looking for Faulk to sign it. Well, Dinardo saw me and he came up to me and me, thinking he would hand it to Faulk, was surprised to see that he was signing the cover himself.
Friendly dude from what I can remember.

Because Joe Dean hired Pat Sullivan from TCU and Sullivan had 400k buyout. Joe Dean told Sullivan that he was not paying the buyout. So Pat Sullivan retracted his agreement to come to LSU even though he had already been announced as the new LSU Coach.

Gerry Dinardo was at Vandy and had withdrawn his name after it was apparent LSU was going with Sullivan. Then Joe Dean had to go back to Dinardo and ask him to become LSU’s next Football Coach because Dinardo was the only other “Finalist”.

Then after Dinardo got to LSU he had a decent staff and had a 7 win season followed by a 10 win season and win in the Peach Bowl over Clemson. Then LSU lost both Coordinators to Texas and Michigan State over money.

Joe Dean then refused to give Dinardo enough money to be competitive to hire replacements. LSU’s staff was the 7th highest paid staff in the SEC in a 12 team SEC. LSU actually lost a coach to Mississippi State over pay.

Joe Dean was a horrible AD. Worse than Alleva. When it came time to hire the next coach Emert intervened and ran the search and hired Nick Saban while Joe Dean was put in a damn corner and forced out after Saban came in. Then Skip took over as AD at Emert’s request.

You younger guys who don’t remember how bad Joe Dean was and can only go by your memory of Alleva. He was bad but he had nothing on Joe Dean.

I could go on about Dean running his car off into Campus Lake while watch some coeds jogging.

Then there was Joe Dean having a hit and run in Southdowns and no one could find him for 3 hours.

Joe Dean could not get along with Skip Bertman and tried to force Bertman to move his office from Alex Box Stadium to the Joe Dean Erection (At the time the new Athletic Building) and Bertman told Dean he was not doing it. Imagine being so damn petty and trying to force Bertman (the shining star of LSU) to move when he doesn’t want to move.

Joe Dean held on to Dale Brown until Brown got LSU on to NCAA probation when it was very clear the Basketball program was in serious decline.

There was much more but you get the point.

Best of all bad options... We should have hired an assistant coach somewhere instead.

To bring back the magic!

His shite seasons sure helped my dad and I get season tickets when we did. So far that, thank you coach!