🏈 From the Shreveport Times

[CrimsonPirate]

by Glenn Guilbeau. Once a hack, always a hack. Check out the fan quotes. Some of 'em make no sense at all. They keep saying he jilted LSU. Maybe. But, he didn't jilt LSU for Alabama. I've always tried to pull for LSU since I live here, but they make it very difficult for me.

BATON ROUGE — “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” wrote 18th century playwright William Congreve in “The Mourning Bride.”
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Well, hell also hath no fury like an LSU fan base scorned. And the Tiger Nation will get to unleash all that fire and brimstone Saturday when former LSU coach Nick “Satan” Saban brings his No. 1 and undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide here and will coach against LSU in Tiger Stadium for the first time since leaving LSU at the proverbial altar on Christmas Day 2004 to become the Miami Dolphins’ coach.

Just two years later, Saban lied and denied his way from Miami to Tuscaloosa, Ala., while LSU fans cried as he bolted the big time to return to his comfort-zoned college coaching at none other than LSU rival Alabama.

And just two seasons later, Saban, who signed the most lucrative long-term guaranteed contract in college football history at $32 million for eight years, has Alabama on top of the world of college football just in the nick of time for his return to the bayou. ESPN’s “College GameDay” show will broadcast live from LSU Saturday morning.

“We want to kick his butt,” said veteran LSU fan Gary Perkins of Pineville while at LSU’s 35-10 win over Tulane on Saturday night. “I don’t respect him. We don’t respect him. He’s a carpetbagger and a turncoat. I appreciate what he did and what he left us, but we don’t respect him. We appreciate having him, but we don’t respect him.”

Ian Dallimore, a recent LSU graduate along with his wife Katie, said they will be in Tiger Stadium booing when the No. 15 and defending national champion Tigers (6-2, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) try to ruin the season of No. 1 Alabama (9-0, 5-0 SEC).

“I will boo him,” Ian Dallimore said at the Tulane game. “He’s just chasing money. He’s still chasing money. He shouldn’t have gone to Miami. You coach at a place that you’re passionate about, not where the money is.”

Added Katie Dallimore, “Why else would you leave LSU but for the money? But I only want him to lose when he’s playing us. There’s a lot of dislike on both sides I think. Alabama fans hate us. It’s going to be very intense. Last year was very intense.”

LSU coach Les Miles, who replaced Saban on Jan. 1, 2005, and matched him with the national championship just two seasons later in 2007, beat Saban in Tuscaloosa last season 41-34 to end Alabama’s three-game winning streak that season. And the Tide went on to lose four in a row in all before finishing 7-6.

“We look forward to playing them,” said Miles, who downplayed the Saban factor.

Saban also insisted he is not the focus of the game after his team defeated Arkansas State 35-0 Saturday night.

“I haven’t really thought about it yet, but it ain’t going to be about me,” he said. “It’s going to be about our players and about our team. And I don’t care how hard anybody tries to make it about something else, it’s not going to be. So I’m kind of giving you a little forewarning. If somebody wants to get a you-know-what chewing this week, that would be a good way to get it because it’s not going to be about that.”

Saban browbeat Miami-area reporters in similar fashion late in the 2006 season when he repeatedly said he was not going to Alabama and did, which is called “crawfishing” in these parts.

Loyal LSU fan and premium tailgater Jacques Berry of Baton Rouge denounced Saban, who was born on Halloween day in 1951.

“I do hate Nick Saban,” Berry said. “But not for leaving LSU. I guess it was the way he handled the Miami situation. He came here when he was at Miami (to play the homeless Saints in Tiger Stadium because of Hurricane Katrina in 2005), and very few people booed him. But I would guess that this Saturday you’ll hear more boos directed toward one person than you’ve ever heard at a sporting event. But I can admit that our defensive coaches are not in the same league as Saban.”

And on the tailgating menu for the Saban Bowl?

“Maybe we’ll throw some wieners into the shrimp pot,” Berry said. “It’s not crawfish season, you know.”

Meanwhile, the Tiger Manor condominiums near the LSU campus is hosting a “Burn Bama Bonfire” Friday night. A billboard with a burning figure in an Alabama shirt is on billboards in town under the words, “Welcome back Nick!”

Steve Skvivanos of Shreveport also had a problem with how Saban left Miami.
“I think Nick Saban and his agent (Jimmy Sexton) were working behind the scenes and letting Alabama know that if it fired Mike Shula (the Tide’s coach from 2003-06) that Saban would be interested,” Skvivanos said. “I thought that was bad sportsmanship and disingenuous. It was not forthright. I didn’t have a problem with the way he left LSU for Miami.”

Alabama did offer the job to West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez before Saban, though.

Many fans said they would not boo Saban and expressed much respect for the job he did at LSU, which was 7-15 overall and 3-13 in the SEC in the two seasons before Saban arrived from Michigan State in 2000. He went 8-4 that first season, then won the SEC in 2001 and finished 10-3. After a dip to 8-5 in 2002, Saban went 13-1 in 2003 and brought LSU its first national title since 1958. He went 9-3 in 2004 before heading to Miami.

“I will not boo him,” said Elaine McManus of Baton Rouge. “I want LSU to win, but I loved what coach Saban did for the program. He loved us.”

Said husband Fred McManus, “He’s a great coach, but just because we love him doesn’t mean we don’t want to kick his butt.”

The McManus’ friend, Suzy Nauck of Baton Rouge, felt empathy for Saban.

“I feel sorry for him really because I think he’s going to get booed bad,” Nauck said. “But I think he was a great coach here. He did a lot for LSU.”

Attorney Eric Guirard of Baton Rouge echoed many of the LSU fans.

“I respect Nick Saban,” he said. “I think he’s a great coach. I certainly want to beat him, but I hold no ill will toward him. And I don’t have a problem with what he did when he left LSU and went to Alabama. That was the only big job open, and he wanted out of the NFL.”

One Alabama fan did not understand why so many LSU fans hate Saban so much considering the fact that there were 30 Saban signees on LSU’s national championship team last year, including stars Glenn Dorsey, Jacob Hester, Early Doucet, Craig Steltz, Early Doucet and Chevis Jackson. Nearly a dozen Saban signees remain on this team, including stars Tyson Jackson, Brett Helms and Herman Johnson.

“This is LSU’s last year of clinging onto Saban and the talent he brought,” wrote John David Smith of Tuscaloosa in an e-mail. “If not for him in the first place, LSU would still be irrelevant in the SEC anyway.”

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081103/SPORTS0202/81102010

 

[reger60]

When the Tide scores the first 21 unanswered points, that place is going to get really quiet and it'll seem like a scrimmage.

ROLL TIDE!!!!

 

[bamanaf]

I liked James Carville's comments today (a rarity), a big LSU fan himself said he would trade a LSU loss tomorrow to see the Tide go to the NC to win-out this year. :wink:

 

[Guest]

Shhhhhh, crickets...

 

[Guest]

I liked James Carville's comments today (a rarity), a big LSU fan himself said he would trade a LSU loss tomorrow to see the Tide go to the NC to win-out this year. :wink:

:shock:

 

[bear facts]

When the Tide scores the first 21 unanswered points, that place is going to get really quiet and it'll seem like a scrimmage.

ROLL TIDE!!!!

If that happens, the purple & gold will file out of that stadium like it's an evacuation drill--rewind to 2002.

Dang, I wish I could find those old photos that were circulating around showing the crowd (or lack of it) by the third quarter of that game. It looked like Alabama had rented Tiger Stadium for a private party. :lol:

Heck, my "LSU" wife conceded the game at halftime with the score only 14-0. :?

It was pretty evident that LSU was not gonna cross the goal line that night--and they didn't. :lol:

 

[bear facts]

I liked James Carville's comments today (a rarity), a big LSU fan himself said he would trade a LSU loss tomorrow to see the Tide go to the NC to win-out this year. :wink:

He must be thinking about running for office in the near future and wants Alabama's electoral votes. cool8)

 

[Guest]

“He’s just chasing money. He’s still chasing money. He shouldn’t have gone to Miami. You coach at a place that you’re passionate about, not where the money is.”

Considering the LSU payed Les Miles more than Saban, and considering that Saban is coaching at Alabama, if what this guy writes is true, LSU does not want Saban and Saban does not want LSU...so everyone is happy and getting what they paid for.

 

[elbatider]

When the Tide scores the first 21 unanswered points, that place is going to get really quiet and it'll seem like a scrimmage.

ROLL TIDE!!!!

I would tend to agree with you, but we have this second half of the UGA game... Even so, I hope you are correct, because I don't see our D giving up 21 to LSU...

 

[Guest]

i'm sorry but i hope we hang 50 on them and laugh all the way to the nc game.

 

[elbatider]

i'm sorry but i hope we hang 50 on them and laugh all the way to the nc game.

Don't be sorry because I'm hoping for 60

my comment was in regards to the fans leaving after we score 21 unanswered. They will be telling themselves they did this against UGA and we have a chance in the second half, but it does set them up for a great Rammer Jammer...

 

[TerryP]

So much to comment on in this thread, so little time... :lol:

When the ball is kicked off, all of this is old news. It's been old news for a long time in my perspective...but I do find myself in a minority a lot with views on some things regarding Alabama.

I will leave you with this thought.

LSU fans will provide a loud atmosphere and try to be an intimidating force when our team takes their first steps off the bus all the way until the ball is kicked off.

For just a minute, try to put yourself in their shoes.

They believe in what Saban has been teaching them. They have witnessed if they "buy in to" what he's been teaching, it'll pay it's dividends.

There is a lot of loyalty from these kids in Crimson when they look to their head coach.

So, imagine yourself in their shoes...you enter the playing arena and hear all these LSU fan booing and yelling at Coach Saban. How does that effect you?

It might serve to add an extra spark, a little more intensity in our pre-game warm-ups. Might.

This I know. The focus of the players on the field, the ones wearing Crimson, will not be on anything that you've seen mentioned this week. It'll be on dominating the player that lines up in front of them.

My question is...at least the one I'll have Saturday night and Sunday morning...ok, maybe Monday as well...is what are they going to focus on then if Bama comes out with a win in Baton Rouge? Will it still be on Saban or will it be on what they came to support? As in, the LSU team.

 

[Guest]

I love all the "how he left Miami" comments. Still makes me laugh.

“Why else would you leave LSU but for the money?

^people that do not understand what taking on a challenge means, or trying things to see if you can.

 

[bear facts]

My question is...at least the one I'll have Saturday night and Sunday morning...ok, maybe Monday as well...is what are they going to focus on then if Bama comes out with a win in Baton Rouge? Will it still be on Saban or will it be on what they came to support? As in, the LSU team.

The focus will turn to them wanting LSU's defensive coordinator canned. Seriously.

 

[Tideboy]

So much to comment on in this thread, so little time... :lol:

When the ball is kicked off, all of this is old news. It's been old news for a long time in my perspective...but I do find myself in a minority a lot with views on some things regarding Alabama.

I will leave you with this thought.

LSU fans will provide a loud atmosphere and try to be an intimidating force when our team takes their first steps off the bus all the way until the ball is kicked off.

For just a minute, try to put yourself in their shoes.

They believe in what Saban has been teaching them. They have witnessed if they "buy in to" what he's been teaching, it'll pay it's dividends.

There is a lot of loyalty from these kids in Crimson when they look to their head coach.

So, imagine yourself in their shoes...you enter the playing arena and hear all these LSU fan booing and yelling at Coach Saban. How does that effect you?

It might serve to add an extra spark, a little more intensity in our pre-game warm-ups. Might.

This I know. The focus of the players on the field, the ones wearing Crimson, will not be on anything that you've seen mentioned this week. It'll be on dominating the player that lines up in front of them.

My question is...at least the one I'll have Saturday night and Sunday morning...ok, maybe Monday as well...is what are they going to focus on then if Bama comes out with a win in Baton Rouge? Will it still be on Saban or will it be on what they came to support? As in, the LSU team.

Nail meet hammer! If I'm a Bama player and I hear their fans dog-cussing MY coach and loudly booing him, I take it very personally amd knock the pee-wine shite out of every guy wearing a yellow helmet I see. :evil:

All this vitiole is going to backfire on LSU in biblical proportions.

 

[bear facts]

When the Tide scores the first 21 unanswered points, that place is going to get really quiet and it'll seem like a scrimmage.

ROLL TIDE!!!!

If that happens, the purple & gold will file out of that stadium like it's an evacuation drill--rewind to 2002.

:

Speaking of the topic on silencing the crowd, did anybody else catch JPW's remark during an ESPN interview last night when he talked about playing away and how the team tries to send the opposing fans to their parked cars by the 4th quarter?

Boy, I loved hearing that!

I have a feeling this team is gonna be bringing a silencer just as effective as the one Franchione's team applied.

RTR!

 

[bamarooski]

Who cares what that rag of a paper says. RTR!