Insight on Gerry DiNardo
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2001 5:14 pmThe following is a collection of excerpts from a pair of emails written by a friend who attended LSU when DiNardo was there, and who was very in touch with the goings-on within the LSU athletic department. Some thoughts (re-printed with his permission):
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DiNardo did some VERY good things, but he also made a few bad decisions that cost him his job.
1) He was an AWESOME recruiter his first three years. He signed Kevin Faulk (currently with New England Patriots), Larry Foster (WR currently with the Detroit Lions), Rondell Mealey (RB, Green Bay Packers), Tory James (DB, Oakland Raiders), Anthony McFarland (DT, Tampa Bay Bucs), and possibly a few others.
2) I'd have to classify him as more of a "disciplinarian" than a "player's coach." He's somewhat "old school." But there's no question that his players always played very hard for him up until the biter end.
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(E-mail #2)
The first three years at LSU, he was awesome. I mean, we were SOOOO bad under Curley Hallman, then DiNardo comes in and immediately wins seven games and a bowl in his first year, 10 games including a bowl in his second, and nine including a bowl in his third, in which we beat defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Florida.
His recruiting classes were all ranked top 10 nationally. We were rolling.
And then, for some reason, he completely changed his philosphies on offense, defense, AND recruiting. I don't know why.
In his third year, our defense played very poorly in the three losses, (but awesome in the other nine games), prompting DiNardo to change his defensive philosophy. Carl Reese was the defensive coordinator, and he left for Texas (the Longhorns' defense is ranked top 5 nationally now under Reese). DiNardo replaced Reese with Lou Tepper, fresh off an 0-11 season (that's right: 0 wins, 11 losses) at Illinois. He had a COMPLETELY different philosophy, and our defense
promptly went from one of the top two in the SEC to, literally, the worst in the nation. LSU went 4-7.
Then, the NEXT season, he changed offensive coordinators. Our offensive coordinator went to Michigan State (and won 10 games under Nick Saban, ironically enough, helping Saban get the LSU job 2 years later), and was replaced with an offensive coordinator "by committee." For some reason, DiNardo put the wide receivers coach in charge of quarterbacks, wide receivers, AND offensive coordinator. Our offense was, literally, one of the worst in the nation. We went 2-9, and by then, he had completely lost the confidence his players and what was left of his coaches.
In the meantime, he had decided the best way to recruit talent was to recruit FEWER players, and concentrate more on those guys. So, there were top-rated recruits across the country saying, "LSU has just stopped calling me."
The results were short-handed recruiting classes filled with guys who couldn't make their grades and couldn't stay out of jail (Cecil Collins ring a bell? Larry Foster, currently playing for the Detriot Lions, was arrested at LSU for stealing a student's purse.).
To make matters even worse (if that was at all possible), he became bitter and paranoid. He blamed the LSU administration, Louisiana's high school coaches, and anybody else he could think of. He stopped talking to the media and really became a shell of the man he once was. I really think his failures just destroyed his confidence. You could see it was just eating him up.
By the time DiNardo was fired, the program was down to 50-something scholarship players. We had fewer scholarship players than Ole Miss, which was coming off a 2-year NCAA probation.
It was just simply unbelievable.
(And by the way, he did coach an XFL team, and they went 2-8.)
Having said all that, IF DiNardo could return to his early philosophies, he would be a GREAT coach for SMU. I would guarantee that he could win 7-8 games every year, and challenge for that conference championship year in and year out.
He had a great strength and conditioning program, and his players were always stronger than their opponents in the fourth quarter. But that's only IF he could calm down get back to what made him so good in the first place. There's no question in my mind that if he hadn't freaked out after his third year, he'd still be at LSU. We might not be as good as, like, Florida and Miami, but we'd be winning 8, 9, 10 games each year and going to bowl games left and right.
To be honest, the only problem I have with DiNardo now is that he still bad-mouths LSU any chance he can get. You would think the entire LSU fan base and
administration held a gun to his head after his first three seasons and forced him to change everything about the way he was coaching. If he were to get hired at SMU, you can bet he'll be asked by reporters, "What happened at LSU?" And I'm just afraid he'd rip us to no end. Curley, as terrible as he was, was honest and fair when he left. Curley'd say things like, "I have no problem with LSU. They gave me 4 years to get the job done, and we didn't get it done." But DiNardo was royally pissed off.
Hopefully, he's had some time to calm down now. I honestly believe he could be great for SMU if he could clear the slate and start over.
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DiNardo did some VERY good things, but he also made a few bad decisions that cost him his job.
1) He was an AWESOME recruiter his first three years. He signed Kevin Faulk (currently with New England Patriots), Larry Foster (WR currently with the Detroit Lions), Rondell Mealey (RB, Green Bay Packers), Tory James (DB, Oakland Raiders), Anthony McFarland (DT, Tampa Bay Bucs), and possibly a few others.
2) I'd have to classify him as more of a "disciplinarian" than a "player's coach." He's somewhat "old school." But there's no question that his players always played very hard for him up until the biter end.
---
(E-mail #2)
The first three years at LSU, he was awesome. I mean, we were SOOOO bad under Curley Hallman, then DiNardo comes in and immediately wins seven games and a bowl in his first year, 10 games including a bowl in his second, and nine including a bowl in his third, in which we beat defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Florida.
His recruiting classes were all ranked top 10 nationally. We were rolling.
And then, for some reason, he completely changed his philosphies on offense, defense, AND recruiting. I don't know why.
In his third year, our defense played very poorly in the three losses, (but awesome in the other nine games), prompting DiNardo to change his defensive philosophy. Carl Reese was the defensive coordinator, and he left for Texas (the Longhorns' defense is ranked top 5 nationally now under Reese). DiNardo replaced Reese with Lou Tepper, fresh off an 0-11 season (that's right: 0 wins, 11 losses) at Illinois. He had a COMPLETELY different philosophy, and our defense
promptly went from one of the top two in the SEC to, literally, the worst in the nation. LSU went 4-7.
Then, the NEXT season, he changed offensive coordinators. Our offensive coordinator went to Michigan State (and won 10 games under Nick Saban, ironically enough, helping Saban get the LSU job 2 years later), and was replaced with an offensive coordinator "by committee." For some reason, DiNardo put the wide receivers coach in charge of quarterbacks, wide receivers, AND offensive coordinator. Our offense was, literally, one of the worst in the nation. We went 2-9, and by then, he had completely lost the confidence his players and what was left of his coaches.
In the meantime, he had decided the best way to recruit talent was to recruit FEWER players, and concentrate more on those guys. So, there were top-rated recruits across the country saying, "LSU has just stopped calling me."
The results were short-handed recruiting classes filled with guys who couldn't make their grades and couldn't stay out of jail (Cecil Collins ring a bell? Larry Foster, currently playing for the Detriot Lions, was arrested at LSU for stealing a student's purse.).
To make matters even worse (if that was at all possible), he became bitter and paranoid. He blamed the LSU administration, Louisiana's high school coaches, and anybody else he could think of. He stopped talking to the media and really became a shell of the man he once was. I really think his failures just destroyed his confidence. You could see it was just eating him up.
By the time DiNardo was fired, the program was down to 50-something scholarship players. We had fewer scholarship players than Ole Miss, which was coming off a 2-year NCAA probation.
It was just simply unbelievable.
(And by the way, he did coach an XFL team, and they went 2-8.)
Having said all that, IF DiNardo could return to his early philosophies, he would be a GREAT coach for SMU. I would guarantee that he could win 7-8 games every year, and challenge for that conference championship year in and year out.
He had a great strength and conditioning program, and his players were always stronger than their opponents in the fourth quarter. But that's only IF he could calm down get back to what made him so good in the first place. There's no question in my mind that if he hadn't freaked out after his third year, he'd still be at LSU. We might not be as good as, like, Florida and Miami, but we'd be winning 8, 9, 10 games each year and going to bowl games left and right.
To be honest, the only problem I have with DiNardo now is that he still bad-mouths LSU any chance he can get. You would think the entire LSU fan base and
administration held a gun to his head after his first three seasons and forced him to change everything about the way he was coaching. If he were to get hired at SMU, you can bet he'll be asked by reporters, "What happened at LSU?" And I'm just afraid he'd rip us to no end. Curley, as terrible as he was, was honest and fair when he left. Curley'd say things like, "I have no problem with LSU. They gave me 4 years to get the job done, and we didn't get it done." But DiNardo was royally pissed off.
Hopefully, he's had some time to calm down now. I honestly believe he could be great for SMU if he could clear the slate and start over.