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Posted on 6/4/14 at 9:09 am to damnedoldtigah
Mac was a great coach. His biggest problem was not winning games, but could never beat the Bear & bama. 
Posted on 6/4/14 at 9:12 am to SaintlyTiger88
No. Chollie Mac was here a long time and had some decent years, but no way he's our greatest coach.
In 18 years as head coach:
- had a conference record of 60-41-3
- won the SEC once
- lost 2 or more conference games in 14 of 18 years (and this was with only a 6-game SEC schedule)
Look, I've got some great memories of some of those years and there were some great games, but longevity doesn't equal greatness.
In 18 years as head coach:
- had a conference record of 60-41-3
- won the SEC once
- lost 2 or more conference games in 14 of 18 years (and this was with only a 6-game SEC schedule)
Look, I've got some great memories of some of those years and there were some great games, but longevity doesn't equal greatness.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 9:22 am to cajunjj
Actually one of only I believe to beat Bear back to back (69-70), but not when come to crunch games I guess.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 9:23 am to SaintlyTiger88
quote:
I wasn't born yet during Coach McClendon's tenure, but I've always heard good things about him though.
I saw most of the games that Mac coached. He was an OK defensive coach, but terrible on offense. One year he alternated Bert Jones and a guy with no talent whatsoever. His players didn't like him because he was two-faced. Not even close to LSU's best coach.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 9:38 am to BRLawyer
good man and good coach. But he was conservative as hell on offense.
Pass was a 4 letter word in his vocabulary.
If a running play worked he would run it 3 more times in a row.
our first string always matched up with bama but not the depth. If you wanted a chance, you had to have some imagination on offense. he didn't. This was why everyone wanted mac to pack.
he was a great defensive coach. we had some championship defenses.
Pass was a 4 letter word in his vocabulary.
If a running play worked he would run it 3 more times in a row.
our first string always matched up with bama but not the depth. If you wanted a chance, you had to have some imagination on offense. he didn't. This was why everyone wanted mac to pack.
he was a great defensive coach. we had some championship defenses.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 9:48 am to BRLawyer
quote:
He was an OK defensive coach
Posted on 6/4/14 at 10:24 am to Tiger in Texas
quote:
instead of taking a bowl game, he convinced the team to skip a bowl game, since they were passed over in the Cotton for Notre Lame
Actually, that had more to do with a team vote than it did him.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 10:28 am to damnedoldtigah
During McClendon's final 9-10 years at LSU he literally NEVER beat the better teams on the schedule. Those LSU teams were glorified 'creampuff killers'.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 10:31 am to damnedoldtigah
Cholly Mac's last 6 years:
1974 .. 5-5-1 .. 2-4
1975 .. 5-6 .. 2-4
1976 .. 7-3-1 .. 3-3
1977 .. 8-4 .. 4-2
1978 .. 8-4 .. 3-3
1979 .. 7-5 .. 4-2
1974 .. 5-5-1 .. 2-4
1975 .. 5-6 .. 2-4
1976 .. 7-3-1 .. 3-3
1977 .. 8-4 .. 4-2
1978 .. 8-4 .. 3-3
1979 .. 7-5 .. 4-2
Posted on 6/4/14 at 10:38 am to BRLawyer
quote:
One year he alternated Bert Jones and a guy with no talent whatsoever.
Paul Lyons was a former QB converted to defense. He was brought back to QB in the spring after LSU lost to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Buddy Lee had left the game injured and Bert Jones took over. On what would have been the game winning drive late (and LSU's final possession) in the game, Jones ignored a play sent in from Mac and instead checked off to his own on what was a fourth and short. Jones' call failed and the ball turned over to the Corn Huskers on downs and they ran the clock out.
Mac and Jones were not on speaking terms for awhile after that. Paul Lyons was brought back over from defense for a couple of reasons: A.) He could run the option better than Jones and B.) depth at QB was thin. Mike Miley and Billy Broussard were still red shirt freshmen with no game experience. Freshmen did not play on varsity back then as schools had a "freshmen team" (sort of a JV if you will), which was done away with somewhere in the early mid 70's.
Lyons was a good running QB but not a good passing QB. Jones was a damned fine passing QB but the option offense did not come naturally to him. That said, Jones eventually became the starter in his junior year before the Notre Dame game in BR, primarily due to his leadership. Yes, the offense should have been tailored around Jones' passing skills, but that was not that popular at the time.
After finishing his time with LSU, Jones would be quoted as saying something to the effect that the highlight of his career at LSU was getting out. Mac responded by saying something to the effect that Jones was not the most coachable player he had ever been around. That animosity lasted for awhile.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 10:42 am to SaintlyTiger88
College football was such a different animal in the times of Coach Mac, it has to be very difficult for the younger fans to comprehend it.
There was very little national recruiting unless you were Notre Dame. Teams could sign as many players as they wanted, and coaches would sign a bevy of players just to keep them from going to competing schools. The arms race that we see in college football was almost non-existent in those days.
Bear Bryant was at his peak, and very few coaches could beat him. I remember being shocked when Georgia won the SEC one year. Coach Mac did about as well as anyone else in hanging with Bryant. Ole Miss had some very good teams, but they couldn't beat Bear, either.
Coach Mac was a very good defensive coach. One year (maybe 1970?) LSU gave up something like 50 yards per game rushing, and that was in the age when running the football was everything in the SEC. Yes, he was conservative offensively, but college football was conservative generally. Few teams relied on the passing game.
I think the two biggest factors that caused his demise were the loyalty to his assistants and the annual matchup with perhaps the greatest college coach ever.
There was very little national recruiting unless you were Notre Dame. Teams could sign as many players as they wanted, and coaches would sign a bevy of players just to keep them from going to competing schools. The arms race that we see in college football was almost non-existent in those days.
Bear Bryant was at his peak, and very few coaches could beat him. I remember being shocked when Georgia won the SEC one year. Coach Mac did about as well as anyone else in hanging with Bryant. Ole Miss had some very good teams, but they couldn't beat Bear, either.
Coach Mac was a very good defensive coach. One year (maybe 1970?) LSU gave up something like 50 yards per game rushing, and that was in the age when running the football was everything in the SEC. Yes, he was conservative offensively, but college football was conservative generally. Few teams relied on the passing game.
I think the two biggest factors that caused his demise were the loyalty to his assistants and the annual matchup with perhaps the greatest college coach ever.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 10:48 am to damnedoldtigah
quote:
Arns did not like recruiting and it showed.
This is a myth. His signees later went on to be drafted into the NFL at the same rate as those under any other LSU coach.
This post was edited on 6/4/14 at 10:49 am
Posted on 6/4/14 at 10:51 am to damnedoldtigah
Yeah, recall this game as a young teen, was 71 O Bowl I think; don't recall that last drive though just the Husker last drive with Jerry Tagge scoring over Anderson and Bevan I believe for the MNC. This was on cover of SI and was a real dagger to me I thought could have won this and put LSU in limelight for 71 season.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 11:19 am to BillF
quote:
BillF
this is probably the most accurate assessment of the Mac era in this thread, as a man, Cholly Mac was as decent a human as you'll ever run across, what someone posted earlier about his players not liking him is pure nonsense, he and his players had life long mutual loyalties, and would go to war for each other, you play the cards you're dealt, but LSU's resources and facilities during the Mac era were more like a JUCO back then as compared to now, it was more difficult to even get in the conversation about being national champion back then, I believe Bama was voted NC one year before their bowl game, then lost, it, Penn St. went undefeated a few years later against a pretty respectable schedule, Bama gets the NC, polls rarely split, there was usually a unanimous NC, not taking anything away from Miles, Saban, but it's a completely different world than the one Mac operated in, he played his hand pretty well
Posted on 6/4/14 at 11:23 am to SaintlyTiger88
quote:
I was thinking about who most people would agree on as LSU's greatest football coach of all time
It's not that simple of a call. LSU has had five head coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Saban and Miles, as BCS winners, are sure to join the CFHOF themselves one day.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 11:32 am to 777Tiger
quote:
what someone posted earlier about his players not liking him is pure nonsense
Agreed, they certainly loved him as a person. What that poster may have been talking about was that some players may have been a little unhappy at times with him seeming to be a bit stuck in his ways. For example, after some major quarterback injuries early in his coaching tenure, he permanently switched to a two-QB system. LSU later got a superstar QB in Bert Jones, and people love to point out that a 2-QB system ended up reducing Bert Jones' playing time some. That's true, but then again, Bert didn't get as banged up because of it either. Maybe if Bert is given full playing time as a QB, he gets a broken leg and never plays again. Don't tempt fate!
Posted on 6/4/14 at 11:40 am to SaintlyTiger88
Mac is similar to Miles in that he wins a lot of football games but isn't respected by a good portion of our fans. I thought that the guy did a great job when he had the talent; perhaps he could have been a more aggressive recruiter.
Posted on 6/4/14 at 11:40 am to TheDude321
quote:
Maybe if Bert is given full playing time as a QB, he gets a broken leg and never plays again. Don't tempt fate!
yep, and the alleged "feud" between Mac and Jones is a myth, Jones was a bit of a prima dona at the time BTW, just a few years after he left, we had a pep rally in the Bernie Moore, before the Rusty Domingue game, IIRC, they had a phone set up on the stage where the coaches and players were, and Mac calls up Jones (with the Colts at the time,) to give us a pep talk and they put it on the stadium speakers, pretty neat, tied #1 Nebraska 6-6
Posted on 6/4/14 at 11:52 am to SaintlyTiger88
This is not a close call.
It is Coach Miles.
It is Coach Miles.
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