WBRZ FLASHBACK: Football coach Mike Archer's explosive separation from LSU

BATON ROUGE — This week in WBRZ history, coach Mike Archer resigned after two consecutive losing seasons as head football coach.

"Unfortunately, this university, in the eyes of a lot of people in this country right now, and the way things are handled here is a joke," Archer said around his explosive separation from the team in November 1990.

LSU had been quietly preparing to replace Archer for weeks as his fourth season continued to a 5-6 record, continuing the losing streak from the previous year, when the Tigers ended 4-7. LSU had secretly hired a search firm to find Archer's replacement, a story WBRZ broke.

The backlash was immense. Chancellor Bud Davis and athletic director Joe Dean blamed the media for how the aftermath was handled. Even LSU basketball coach Dale Brown got involved, interrupting a news conference to share his opinion.

"I think you all have helped to perpetuate this, and it's a damn shame what's happening in this country and in sports because you just lost one hell of a good man, all of you," he said.

But the question still remained: Why did LSU hire a search firm if they had not been looking for a new head coach?

"I was just trying to see the available pool. If, in fact, we decided to make a change, I would just be aware of possible people who would be available," athletic director Dean said.

Archer's replacement, Curley Hallman, didn't do much better coaching the Tigers. He won only 36% of his games before he was fired from LSU.

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