By GLENN GUILBEAU
Tiger Rag Editor
LOS ANGELES – What remains one of the greatest Summer Olympics ever for the United States had just happened the previous month in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Bruce Springsteen’s exploding, Olympian-in-itself “Born In The USA” tour was hitting its stride and graced the front page of the Los Angeles Times as the No. 18 Tigers (2-0-1) landed in Los Angeles on Friday, Sept. 28, 1984. They would play the No. 15 USC Trojans (2-0) the next day at the Coliseum in a non-televised game, other than LSU’s TigerVision.
Hollywood was abuzz with a $1 million offer by Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione to Elizabeth Taylor to pose in his magazine with more than just her violet eyes being featured. She said no.
Back in Baton Rouge, former LSU quarterback and then-mayor Pat Screen found himself in a bitter battle for reelection with Woody Dumas.
And the Tigers had a new football coach in Bill Arnsparger, who was seen as too old in many circles at 57 when he took the job after Jerry Stovall was fired during a 4-7 season in 1983, which was his second losing campaign in three years as he fell to 22-21-1 overall since 1980.
LSU Opens 2024 Season Sunday Vs. USC In Vegas
Brian Kelly, 62, opens his third season as LSU’s coach when his No. 13 Tigers play No. 23 USC Sunday in Las Vegas (6:30 p.m. central time, ABC) at Allegiant Stadium. And Tiger Rag will be there as it was in 1984 in Los Angeles. (I covered that game and will arrive in Vegas from L.A. tonight.)
LSU’s trip to L.A. in 1984 was its farthest west voyage for a football game ever and remained that way until the Tigers beat Washington in Seattle, 31-23, to open the 2009 season.
LSU’s cheerleaders, myself, athletic department employees and other members of LSU’s travel contingent hit Disneyland in Anaheim the day before the game. Then many of us went to Dodger Stadium that night to see the Dodgers and pitcher Bob Welch beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-3.
Little did we know, LSU would shock USC by holding it to that same point total in a 23-3 victory in front of 60,128 at the Coliseum behind Arnsparger’s defense. A genius defensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins who won Super Bowls in the 1972 and ’73 season, Arnsparger was famous for the “No-Name” defense in the early ’70s with the Dolphins and the “Killer B’s” in the early ’80s at Miami around a disastrous 7-28 run as the New York Giants’ head coach in the mid-1970s.
Roy Firestone, who was hosting the SportsLook talk show on ESPN at the time, criticized second-year coach Ted Tollner’s offense vs. Arnsparger on his KNXT/KCBS TV sportscast that night.
USC’s only points came on a field goal early in the game after a fumble by future New Orleans Saints wide receiver Eric Martin deep in LSU territory that future Saints linebacker and assistant coach Jack Del Rio recovered for the Trojans.
“I was proud of the defense with the shutout,” Arnsparger said after the game. “It’s hard to lose when you have a shutout. It was a great win for our football team.”
Arnsparger quickly became known for his superior defenses with the Tigers, who finished 8-3-1 in 1984, holding opponents to 16 points or less six times. His Tigers enjoyed real shutouts twice in a 9-2-1 season in 1985 – 10-0 over Kentucky and 14-0 at Ole Miss in back-to-back games. And LSU held opponents to 17 points or less eight times, including a 47-0 shutout of Mississippi State, in a 9-3 season in 1986 in which the Tigers won their first Southeastern Conference title since 1970.
In other words, Arnsparger was Nick Saban to LSU’s defenses before Nick Saban.
“We knocked them around,” LSU safety Jeffery Dale said after spanking USC all afternoon.
LSU defensive backs Kevin Guidry, Steve Rehage and Liffort Hobley each intercepted passes as USC did not have regular starting quarterback Sean Salisbury due to injury. LSU quarterback Jeff Wickersham completed 14 of 27 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown. Tailback Dalton Hilliard gained 81 yards on 28 carries with a pair of touchdowns.
“Tigers Take Giant Step, Trample USC,” beamed the Baton Rouge Advocate headline.
LSU’s Win Over USC In 1984 Was Historical
And it really was. LSU had not beaten a higher ranked, non-conference opponent away from Tiger Stadium since the unranked Tigers beat No. 2 Arkansas, 14-7, in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1966, breaking the Razorbacks’ 22-0 streak. Screen played quarterback in that game for LSU, completing 7 of 10 passes for 82 yards and rushing five times for 20 yards.
Screen also won that Saturday in 1984, beating Dumas by 61,492 votes to 38,277, and would soon hire a political science graduate from LSU to his mayor staff named Scott Woodward, who joined another budding politico giant – James Carville.
After LSU’s win, Arnsparger – in a rare show of emotion – ran to the LSU contingent of 5,000 strong on one side of the Coliseum waving to cheers. Arnsparger left a great team at LSU when he departed to become Florida’s athletic director after the 1986 season. His defensive coordinator, Mike Archer, replaced him as head coach and went 10-1-1 in 1987 and 8-4 in 1988 and won the program’s second SEC crown in three seasons.
Alas, six consecutive losing seasons followed from 1989-94.
LSU would not win two SEC titles in three years again until Saban did it in 2001 and 2003, when he also won the Tigers’ first national title in football since 1958. The Tigers shared that national title, ironically, with USC, which was declared No. 1 by the Associated Press poll while LSU won the BCS title. The Tigers have not won two SEC titles in three years since.
Arnsparger also left LSU with a 2-0-1 record against Alabama. That was not equaled or passed until Saban went 4-1 against the Tide from 2000-04.
Could a win over USC on Sunday set LSU up for its first SEC title and more since 2019?
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