Tinker:
Sports is a good break taking our attention away from the very disappointing job president Barack Obama is doing these days in Washington DC. So without further comment let go there.
----------------
Sports is a good break taking our attention away from the very disappointing job president Barack Obama is doing these days in Washington DC. So without further comment let go there.
----------------
Sports
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http://tigerrag.com/football/
JOHNSON: Start thinking, Les Miles haters
http://tigerrag.com/football/
JOHNSON: Start thinking, Les Miles haters
11/20/2013 1:09:19 AM
By LUKE JOHNSON
Tiger Rag Associate Editor
You want Les Miles outta here, and you’re so very wrong.
If this column is directed at you, you’ve probably already put it down because your mind has been settled on the topic for some time. I’m asking you to reconsider before you do that.
The reason you feel the way you do is because you’re letting emotion get in the way of logic. The painful and, admittedly, sometimes head-scratching losses the Tigers have endured in recent seasons, most recently the 38-17 shellacking they were handed in Tuscaloosa, has you thinking with your heart instead of your brain.
But let’s be rational about this, please. It’s a hard thing to do as a sports fan, trust me, I know.
Let’s start by getting right to the root of the problem – Miles is reviled by some around these parts because of the expectations generated not only by his own success, but by the success his predecessor had at LSU and continues to have with a hated rival a couple states away.
This feeling is inherently wrong.
By now you know that Miles, by winning percentage, is the winningest coach in LSU history. The Tigers have gone 92-24 under Miles, a 79.3 percent clip. The next closest coach on LSU’s all-time list? His predecessor Nick Saban, who won 75 percent of his games.
He’s done this while playing in the toughest division of the toughest conference in college football. Five of the last six BCS National Champions have come from the Southeastern Conference Western Division, and that number includes the 2007 LSU team that Miles led.
The Western Division hasn’t just been top-heavy, either. There have been at least three top-20 teams in the final AP poll in each of the last four years, including an obscene five top-15 teams in 2010 (against which Miles and LSU went 2-2).
That number doesn’t include permanent opponent Florida or the bevy of tough non-conference opponents that LSU’s had on its schedule in recent years.
Just a cursory glance at his record proves to me that you don’t want Miles gone because of wins and losses. Sure, there might be particular losses (January 9, 2012 anyone?) that sting more than others, but on the whole LSU has been a winner under Miles. There’s no denying that basic fact.
There’s got to be something deeper than LSU’s record on Saturdays that makes you wish he’d have his bag packed and ready to go. Something raw and emotional that the brain doesn’t compute.
Maybe you’re one of the people that subscribes to the theory that Miles has somehow, some way, gotten by on pure luck for eight years. He’s definitely had his fair share of that. But luck doesn’t have such an extended reach and luck doesn’t win 80 percent of its games.
Perhaps you want him gone because he makes $4 million a year, which you find too pricey for someone who wins a lot of games, but loses a few too.
If that’s the case, consider the alternatives: you could take a gamble on a far less accomplished coach to win in the ultra-competitive SEC West, much like Texas A&M did when it snagged Kevin Sumlin from Houston. But those of you this column is directed at have already proven that you’re not happy with multiple-loss seasons, and Sumlin now has two of those in two years. Odds are, another similar coach would bear similar results.
The other alternative would be to pay someone the same amount of dough to win in a different way, because there’s hardly a guarantee that another highly-respected coach could do any better than Miles is doing now managing a team that lost eight defenders from last season’s team to the National Football League. That doesn’t get you anywhere if your main gripe is money spent, does it?
That’s another can of worms. Even if you’re waving $4 million around, what coach in his right mind is going to want to come to LSU after it just ran a guy out of town who won 80 percent of his games?
Maybe it’s because he doesn’t win pretty. His offenses, with the exception of this year, have been bland and predictable. But it goes back to the main point – he doesn’t win pretty, but he wins and that’s got to count for something.
And maybe it’s because the things that endeared him to the fan base in the first place – his quirky mannerisms, his superstructured hat, eating grass, going for it on 4th down, flipping fake kicks over the shoulder – have grown disenchanting over the course of time.
All these things are immaterial, though. It all goes back to the most basic facts: winning football games and setting up a program for long-term success. Miles has done that to the point where you expect more than a top-15 or top-10 ranking at the end of the year. You expect more, because the team’s been at the pinnacle of college football and you want it to stay there. Hey, Miles agrees with you.
"We expect more because we’re awfully ambitious,” Miles said. "I have to be honest with you, every year — every stinking year — we lost a couple that we shouldn’t have. I wish that we hadn’t have, including the year that you win the national championship.
"There’s some victories that I’m awfully proud of, there’s some games where we played extremely hard and finished second. But I think that the program is in the exact same place that it needs to be — close.”
"This is a program that sustains itself. I think we’re terribly close to being in the game.”
Close doesn’t cut it around here, and that’s fine. Miles is part of the reason that rings true.
I’m not suggesting you should cut Miles some slack, nor am I making excuses for his failures. He’s paid a lot of money to win a lot of football games, and he should be held to as high a standard of any coach out there.
This season, his team has not performed up to the high standard both you and Miles set for LSU, and Miles deserves part of the blame for that.
But to suggest he should lose his job over it is lunacy.
Tiger Rag Associate Editor
You want Les Miles outta here, and you’re so very wrong.
If this column is directed at you, you’ve probably already put it down because your mind has been settled on the topic for some time. I’m asking you to reconsider before you do that.
The reason you feel the way you do is because you’re letting emotion get in the way of logic. The painful and, admittedly, sometimes head-scratching losses the Tigers have endured in recent seasons, most recently the 38-17 shellacking they were handed in Tuscaloosa, has you thinking with your heart instead of your brain.
But let’s be rational about this, please. It’s a hard thing to do as a sports fan, trust me, I know.
Let’s start by getting right to the root of the problem – Miles is reviled by some around these parts because of the expectations generated not only by his own success, but by the success his predecessor had at LSU and continues to have with a hated rival a couple states away.
This feeling is inherently wrong.
By now you know that Miles, by winning percentage, is the winningest coach in LSU history. The Tigers have gone 92-24 under Miles, a 79.3 percent clip. The next closest coach on LSU’s all-time list? His predecessor Nick Saban, who won 75 percent of his games.
He’s done this while playing in the toughest division of the toughest conference in college football. Five of the last six BCS National Champions have come from the Southeastern Conference Western Division, and that number includes the 2007 LSU team that Miles led.
The Western Division hasn’t just been top-heavy, either. There have been at least three top-20 teams in the final AP poll in each of the last four years, including an obscene five top-15 teams in 2010 (against which Miles and LSU went 2-2).
That number doesn’t include permanent opponent Florida or the bevy of tough non-conference opponents that LSU’s had on its schedule in recent years.
Just a cursory glance at his record proves to me that you don’t want Miles gone because of wins and losses. Sure, there might be particular losses (January 9, 2012 anyone?) that sting more than others, but on the whole LSU has been a winner under Miles. There’s no denying that basic fact.
There’s got to be something deeper than LSU’s record on Saturdays that makes you wish he’d have his bag packed and ready to go. Something raw and emotional that the brain doesn’t compute.
Maybe you’re one of the people that subscribes to the theory that Miles has somehow, some way, gotten by on pure luck for eight years. He’s definitely had his fair share of that. But luck doesn’t have such an extended reach and luck doesn’t win 80 percent of its games.
Perhaps you want him gone because he makes $4 million a year, which you find too pricey for someone who wins a lot of games, but loses a few too.
If that’s the case, consider the alternatives: you could take a gamble on a far less accomplished coach to win in the ultra-competitive SEC West, much like Texas A&M did when it snagged Kevin Sumlin from Houston. But those of you this column is directed at have already proven that you’re not happy with multiple-loss seasons, and Sumlin now has two of those in two years. Odds are, another similar coach would bear similar results.
The other alternative would be to pay someone the same amount of dough to win in a different way, because there’s hardly a guarantee that another highly-respected coach could do any better than Miles is doing now managing a team that lost eight defenders from last season’s team to the National Football League. That doesn’t get you anywhere if your main gripe is money spent, does it?
That’s another can of worms. Even if you’re waving $4 million around, what coach in his right mind is going to want to come to LSU after it just ran a guy out of town who won 80 percent of his games?
Maybe it’s because he doesn’t win pretty. His offenses, with the exception of this year, have been bland and predictable. But it goes back to the main point – he doesn’t win pretty, but he wins and that’s got to count for something.
And maybe it’s because the things that endeared him to the fan base in the first place – his quirky mannerisms, his superstructured hat, eating grass, going for it on 4th down, flipping fake kicks over the shoulder – have grown disenchanting over the course of time.
All these things are immaterial, though. It all goes back to the most basic facts: winning football games and setting up a program for long-term success. Miles has done that to the point where you expect more than a top-15 or top-10 ranking at the end of the year. You expect more, because the team’s been at the pinnacle of college football and you want it to stay there. Hey, Miles agrees with you.
"We expect more because we’re awfully ambitious,” Miles said. "I have to be honest with you, every year — every stinking year — we lost a couple that we shouldn’t have. I wish that we hadn’t have, including the year that you win the national championship.
"There’s some victories that I’m awfully proud of, there’s some games where we played extremely hard and finished second. But I think that the program is in the exact same place that it needs to be — close.”
"This is a program that sustains itself. I think we’re terribly close to being in the game.”
Close doesn’t cut it around here, and that’s fine. Miles is part of the reason that rings true.
I’m not suggesting you should cut Miles some slack, nor am I making excuses for his failures. He’s paid a lot of money to win a lot of football games, and he should be held to as high a standard of any coach out there.
This season, his team has not performed up to the high standard both you and Miles set for LSU, and Miles deserves part of the blame for that.
But to suggest he should lose his job over it is lunacy.
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11/20/2013 9:05:11 AM
Absolutely!!!
Critics can always shoot off their big mouths but they can NEVER
perform!!! Les is a great coach!! GeauxTigers!!!!!
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11/20/2013 9:16:11 AM
Miles
has had the very good fortune of inheriting an excellant program with
unlimited resources and has done a relatively good job. You speak to
his winning record, which is impressive. How do those same percentages
look versus SEC opponents or top 25 teams. You are right about his pay
being an issue (at a time when the state is in such a dire financial
situation). He has flirted with Michigan twice and Arkansas once and
parlayed those situations to pay increases. He is paid like a very top
tier coach, and in many fan's and the national media's opinion, he is
only a fair game day coach. His recruting skills are strong and his
players seem to like him (but you must wonder why the TIgers appear to
lose more underclassmen then most clubs if they love him so much - even
those undrafted leave!). His teams tend to play down to their
competition which makes one wonder how much motivation he actually
provides. And his PR/communication skills when representing the state's
flagship university - enough said. In summary, he has done a good job
but is paid (and works at a university where "good" should not be the
accepetible standard), which is the route of the problem!
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11/20/2013 9:34:52 AM
Jake, thanks for reading. Let me just respond to a few of those.
Miles is 36-19 against ranked opponents (13-14 vs top-10, 23-5 vs teams ranked 11-25), which compares favorably to most coaches around the country. Against the SEC, Miles is 50-20. While he has his flaws (in-game adjustments and clock management being highest among them), his record goes to show he's far beyond just a fair game day coach. There's no way he could've sustained such success while being simply adequate, no matter how many four and five-star athletes he has on his team. But that's a judgment call, and I'll let you have that. I just disagree with the premise. As far as underclassmen leaving early, I believe that is a product of Miles' dedication to playing young players early. It leads to guys like Michael Ford, who went undrafted, declaring early because if he stayed he knew he'd cede most of his carries to younger guys like Jeremy Hill and Kenny Hilliard. By playing these guys early, Miles is able to show some of the top level recruits that they can get on the field early at LSU. It also shows them that they might be able to jump to the NFL sooner from LSU, which is a huge selling point. As far as his communication skills go, I think Miles does it purposefully. By talking in circles and using jumbled syntax, he never fully answers a question, and I believe that's the way he wants it. He's smarter than most people think. Again, thanks for reading. I enjoy the debate, particularly on this issue. |
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11/20/2013 10:04:06 AM
GREAT
COLUMN! No one (not even the great Gilbeau) can give any LOGICAL
reasons for their wanting to get rid of Coach Miles, one of today's best
college coaches. Of course, they can give their petty and illogical
reasons. The only problem at all that I can see is that (for whatever
reason and we will not question AL's tactics) Coach Miles and his staff
has not been able to "build a fence around the state" and get 100% of
the outstanding Louisiana football players--even those with very poor
grades and those who want to get away from home, etc.
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11/20/2013 11:10:16 AM
Les
Miles can't coach. And his time coaching LSU football program is
beginning to drag LSU football skills back into the pack. Miles has been
given credit for coaching ability that he don't deserve. It is obvious
that his so call recruiting skills are really not all that good after
all, because Alabama is separating away from the rest of the SEC teams.
As LSU recruited football talent is falling back into the SEC pack. What
so great about falling back into the SEC pack?
I am nicknaming Les Miles "Talking Points Les" now, because he is trying to hold on to the 70 percent statistic quote that keeps filling LSU tiger stadium with the faithful LSU football fans hoping to win.
Les Miles is not a good enough head football coach for my liking but if that's what you want, knock yourselves out.
-------------I am nicknaming Les Miles "Talking Points Les" now, because he is trying to hold on to the 70 percent statistic quote that keeps filling LSU tiger stadium with the faithful LSU football fans hoping to win.
Les Miles is not a good enough head football coach for my liking but if that's what you want, knock yourselves out.
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