But they go to Florida, Miami . . . on a Friday night in Miami and beat a pretty good ball club. Miami, at that time, was recruiting kids from all over the country, primarily from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, some from Florida. But they were . . . They had some big linemen from everywhere, you know. And they had what I would call an established national program. LSU beat them 41 - 0. So that Monday, the following Monday, LSU’s ranked 9th in the AP Poll.
Dave Garroway was the host of “The Today Show.” Well, NBC Sports had the rights to the college football, so as a gimmick to hype their football property, “The Today Show” came out with their rankings every Monday morning, you know. LSU’s ranked ninth in the country by “The Today Show.” AP did the same thing. So that morning when I went to work, I couldn’t find a parking place! [laughs] All the places were taken. There was a campus policeman out there directing traffic. There was a line around the stadium and it wasn’t eight o’clock yet, you know. I mean, they hadn’t even opened the ticket office. So this was a first, you know. All of the sudden, you know, the bandwagon was getting crowded.
-- Bud Johnson, interviewed by Emily Nemens, 2013