LSU Head Football Coach Les Miles
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Thomas Williams
What or who is keeping Les Miles coaching the LSU Football team - even after Coach Miles let the LSU college football program slip back into the SEC pack.
Not since 1999 has the LSU football team lose three straight college football game, like LSU did in 2015.
So what does the LSU football team and fans do? Carried Coach Les Miles off the field like a conquering hero after LSU last football game in 2015 LSU Tiger Stadium.
Why?
"What in the Hell is going on out there," LSU?
LSU's Miles brushes off scrutiny as 12th season nears
By BRETT MARTEL
AP Sports Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The topic of
discussion in Les Miles' second-floor office at LSU's expansive
football complex centered on how the coach intended to handle the
ever-heightening scrutiny upon him this season - particularly in light
of the raging speculation that he was on the brink of being fired last
November.
At one point, Miles casually leaned
forward from the sofa he sat upon, peaked inside a crinkled paper bag on
the coffee table in front of him and uttered, "That's a bummer."
Either his wife, Kathy, or 13-year-old
daughter, Macy, had finished the tortilla chips while dining with Miles
following LSU's evening practice, and the coach asked, "How the heck
are you supposed to eat guacamole without chips?"
That might have been the toughest
question facing LSU's charismatic, hat-wearing, grass-chewing coach that
evening. When it came to how he'll deal with the perception of
uncertainty swirling around him heading into his 12th season with the
Tigers, Miles offered a straight-forward response that seemed obvious to
him.
"Our plan would be to win and to play
very, very well and not to really worry or commiserate and waste time
about things you cannot control," Miles said in an interview with The
Associated Press. "You can only put the plan in place to win. ... You
can't be the best you can be if you're not fully consumed with that
very, very specific goal."
In Baton Rouge, many fans are fed up
with the Tigers' five-game losing streak against Alabama and question
why a program with LSU's profile, highly rated recruiting classes and
first-class facilities hasn't played in an elite bowl game for four
seasons. That's why pressure mounted on LSU's administration to fire
Miles during a three-game skid late last season.
But Miles and his famously unconventional syntax are back for what many see as make-or-break campaign.
In terms of pure numbers, the Miles
era has involved plenty of winning - 112 victories in 11 seasons, second
only at LSU to Charlie McClendon's 137 victories in 18 seasons
(1962-79). Miles' highlights include the 2007 national title. He'd never
lost three straight at LSU before last year.
Miles' backers see him as a friendly,
funny, well-grounded family man who is committed to his community for
the long-term. All four of his children have spent at least part of
their childhood in Baton Rouge, and the 62-year-old Miles doesn't sound
inclined to entertain leaving, even if his tenure as LSU coach ends
before he'd prefer.
"I see four kids who grew up here and
have lifetime friends here and will always want to come back to Baton
Rouge," Miles said. "I've had tremendous experiences in Tiger Stadium
with young men I've been fortunate to coach and I am not going to
minimize that for a moment."
Kathy Miles said her husband has always been steady through rough patches, even last season.
"In terms of Les, (last season) never
felt any different at all from the first day we got here," she said.
"You just put your head down, you just try to win and you hope that you
do that a great majority of the time - especially at LSU - because the
expectations are high. But Les knew that when he got here."
Similar sentiments echo from Miles' players.
"All the speculation that was going on, I know he had to feel some type of way about it," receiver Malachi Dupre said. "But through that whole process, seeing him stay the same just shows the way you have to handle things in life.
"He did a great job of handling it and taught us all a lesson about fighting through it and doing the best you possibly can."
Miles said that when he travels around Louisiana, fans continue to greet him graciously.
Some thank him for making LSU
football a bright spot during tough times, such as in his first season
in 2005, when the Tigers had a strong season amid disruptions caused by
devastating hurricanes Katrina and Rita. More recently, Miles has sought
to lend moral support to law enforcement in the wake of a deadly police
shooting in Baton Rouge in July. Now Miles is eyeing ways to help
victims of flooding that has damaged an estimated 40,000 south Louisiana
homes; LSU players were helping out at a shelter for flood victims this
past week.
Miles' backers were out in force
during LSU's regular season finale last season, when his job status
appeared in doubt. They roared for him when he walked from the team bus
to the stadium, and again when he appeared on the field.
But it wasn't until after the Tigers'
triumph in that game that LSU confirmed Miles' return in 2016 - an
unpopular decision among fans who believe LSU should have won more in
recent years - particularly against rival Alabama and coach Nick Saban, a
former LSU coach who has won four national titles with the Crimson Tide
since 2009.
"The reason LSU fired Charlie
McClendon was he couldn't beat Bear Bryant, but nobody would take a step
back and realize nobody else could beat Bear Bryant, either," said
Baton Rouge sports talk radio host Derek Ponamsky. "Now people are
saying Miles has got to beat Saban. Who else is consistently doing
that?"
The Tigers host Alabama on Nov. 5.
Before that, LSU's slate includes a challenging season opener against
Wisconsin at Green Bay's Lambeau Field and a visit to resurgent Florida.
Most starters have returned to a
Tigers squad that won nine games last season, including a lopsided bowl
victory over Texas Tech. Those back on offense include junior running
back Leonard Fournette, who is a Heisman Trophy candidate, along with junior quarterback Brandon Harris and his top two receivers, senior Travin Dural and Dupre. The defensive standouts returning include linebacker Kendell Beckwith, cornerback Tre'Davious White and lineman Arden Key.
Yet, if LSU falls short of the
College Football Playoff, Miles could be blamed for squandering what
many view as LSU's best team since 2011.
Harris grinned when asked if he's
noticed anything different about Miles this season and called Miles "the
chilliest coach I've ever been around."
"A lot of fans don't like me, either,
but I don't think me or coach cares," Harris said. "The only thing that
matters is what your family thinks about you and we're his family and
we love the dude to death."
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AP college football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org
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