There was also the lack of recruiting skills Arnsparger possessed. He inheirited Stovalls players and did well with them. Then after 3 years he left for Florida and Archer took over. He had a good 1st season then it dropped off because the talent wasn't there. Arnsparger left him with nothing. He hated to get out and meet players and that is why Archer had crap after his second year.
Arnsparger never really fit in at LSU which was just a stepping stone for him. He wanted to return to Florida where he spent so many years with the Dolphins. He wanted to get into administration, but apparently it wasn't all he wanted either and he returned to finish his career in the NFL as a defensive coach. He recommended Archer as head coach and LSU actually hired him. It must be the only time an AD of a rival school picked our coach for us. Archer was a disaster, of course, as Arnsparger probably knew.
Archer is a much better coach than people realize. He spent many years with Cowher in NFL after left LSU. You hit the nail on the head about recruiting. Arnsbarger didn't like to do it. Archer recruited better but was a victim of attrition for some reason. Only around 7 of 27 players from his first class finished 4 years. Arnsbarger was offered the LSU AD job but declined it to go to UF as AD.
Norm Sloan, the UF basketball coach in the late 80's, has some pretty hard words about Arnsparger in his book. Apparently, he meddled in everything and Sloan didn't appreciate it. I still remember his "I just went there to talk" press conference during the 86 season. Maybe he couldn't recruit, maybe he couldn't get along with the press, but he was a very good game coach. That's why people still have fond memories. GEAUX TIGERS
Bill Bill, Left because of porp 48 and the talent in Louisiana in the next few years was way down. Also liked posted earlier Bill never like recruiting and Archer was the number one recruiter for Bill's last two years. Bill left Archer with mostly what was left with Stovall's last two classes as starters and a good back up ol, but on defense both on the line and secondary LSU was weaken in depth. LSU back up ol fell apart when we lost a number of them to grades, personal problems and one future all star quitting the team. So by Archer's second year LSU had no depth and prop 48 killed any chance of recruiting SEC type back ups. SOS wasn't Bill's first choice at Florida, he was number 2 or 3. Joe Dean was the worse hire in LSU AD history hand down, no one did more to destory LSU football while not trying too. Joe, Archer with Ole Miss's schedule would have had 4 winning seasons in a roll, but Hallman was not one step down from Archer but more like 6. Hallman was made by Brent Favre who was recruited by Jim Carmody at SMU. Hallman's hires were to say the least questionable, and at the time I told a few that would hear my words LSU was about to fall until we hire a new staff and coach.
