It’s way bigger than this board. You could use it as a small sample size that represents a much bigger, deeper, and generationally ingrained pathology of Louisianans in general. We are incredibly insecure and being perpetual losers and victims has become a huge part of our collective identity. So much so that we care more about what others think about us than what we actually are.

I wrote a pretty good post—turned out to be long essay, so I’m not even sure if anybody actually read it. I wish I could find it, but it was probably 15+ years ago. But 2 things were happening here that I really noticed:

1) there were a ton of posters scouring other schools message boards to come back here and tell us what other fanbases were saying about us. Fanbases of teams we were skull fricking. And it wasn’t to laugh at them, these posters were really pissed. Same thing with any media who said even the slightest thing, not just negative towards LSU, but things not 100% positive. And this still happens. We have a tendency to take everything said about us in the very worst possible way it could be interpreted. We see things that aren’t even there.

But what’s weird about it, is not just that we don’t have the self awareness to realize we do the exact same thing to other schools—there’s no message board that shits on LSU anymore than we shite on them. It’s what message boards are all about. And 2 fanbases could watch the exact same game and both come to the conclusion that the announcers are “sucking the other team’s dick” or “obviously pulling against us.” That’s not terribly unique to us.

And it’s not even how much we shite eat our own. Nobody shits on LSU like LSU fans.
That’s not even that unique to LSU, though I think we take it to the extreme. It’s how desperate we are to search out all these perceived slights. It’s not just noticing them organically and maybe make a mountain of a molehill. No, we go out of our way to find these slights. Because we NEED it. Even though we hate it, we’re weirdly comforted by it, because it validates our own perception of ourselves, it reinforces our collective identity, even if that identity is extremely negative. It’s more important that it lines up with who we think we are. Because that’s comfortable. If your identity is shaken and you realize you are better than you’ve thought you were, more capable than you think you are, then the impetus is on you to actually change and do better. And that’s scary. It’s uncomfortable. What if you try and fail? It’s easier to be ignorant to your true potential because it gives you a built in excuse to settle for less. That’s who you are, after all.

That’s personal psychology, and how important our individual identities are to us and how terrifying it is when that’s disturbed. Most people at the very least do nothing to challenge that. Others seek out validation to reenforce it. But it can also apply to a bigger group, and it definitely applies to Louisianans.

2) the other thing that was happening was Les was in the middle of his arse kicking run (so this was probably somewhere between ‘06 and ‘11). But even though we were in the middle of one of the most dominant stretches in school history, when were one of the biggest brands in college football, when we were so physical that NOBODY wanted to play us, because even the few teams that walked away victorious, were still going to feel it the next week, were still going to get physically beat up.

But Les had become the grass chewing, 4th down going for, trick FG calling, Mad Hatter character that the rest of college football had grown to love. And they did love him. Bigger than life head coach characters have always been the stars of college football. But our insecurities surfaced and we thought everybody was making fun of him. Other fanbases probably were (but who gives a frick? “Lions shouldn’t be concerned with the feelings of sheep” and all that). But it occurred to me that LSU fans were much more concerned with other people’s Perception of our head coach than whether or not he actually won games. They’d rather have a coach that (they thought) other people respected and lost more than they disrespected and won. Because the LSU coach is always the most visible person in Louisiana and, therefore, is our default avatar, representing all the rest of us. And, again weirdly, a lot of collective self worth is tied to how he is perceived. Part of why Brian Kelly was immediately hated by LSU fans who never game him a chance, despite it being a pretty unquestionably “good hire” on paper. We saw that everybody nationally hated him, took that as hatred and disrespect of us, and immediately turned that hatred back on him. Before he ever coached a game. And some
that gave him the temporary benefit of the doubt, watched that 1st game and were done—there was no path for his redemption here.

Just like that post I alluded to writing over 15 years ago, this one wound up being way longer than I thought. Only that one was much better and more thought out. So I don’t blame anybody for not reading all—or any—of this one.

Tl;dr—Louisianans/LSU fans have a uniquely collective negative identity and perception of ourselves due to a couple of centuries of corrupt and incompetent history. And the subconscious cumulative effects that continue to manifest are fascinating.

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Posted by crazyLSUstudent

391 miles away from Tiger Stadium

Member since Mar 2012

6102 posts

Posted on 11/28/25 at 1:19 pm to lurking

Each fanbase is emotionally hedging.

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Posted by dagrippa

Saigon

Member since Nov 2004

12169 posts

Posted on 11/28/25 at 1:29 pm to lurking

we both have a touch of the catastrophe syndrome

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Posted by DeathByTossDive225

Baton Rouge

Member since Sep 2019

7598 posts

Posted on 11/28/25 at 1:31 pm to Hot Carl

I think it might be a little bit of both, but I think the last two coaching cycles are more relevant here than any history or culture.

For example, nobody melted for a second of 2019 outside of the Auburn game. We had reasons to be confident.

We’re coming off the heels of two badly handled coaching searches, and I really think it’s that simple. Coaching searches are also just big moments/junctures for football programs in general, and out fanbase is knowledgeable enough to understand that

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