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Les Miles

tarun262

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Apr 9, 2007
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Insane to me that a man who wins 77% of his games in the SEC gets booted out??? I know their offense has been pathetic the past couple years but still. 114 wins in 11 seasons and 4 games comes to an average of 9+ wins a season with a 7-4 bowl game record, 1 NT, 2 NT appearances, etc. I guess LSU is giving up on this season with Ed O, who is a terrible coach and Tom Herman is likely headed to LSU next year - which I am excited about because he is a darn good coach and will give Saban fits there. I predict Miles ends up somewhere in the BIG 12 especially with his ability to recruit in the south.
 
Damn you beat me to this lol.
I was surprised to. I thought LSU would have atleast waited to see how the season ended. I wouldn't have fired Les now, but Cameron, yes get his ass outta their.
Hey, maybe they can hire Jerry Dinardo to be the HC .
 
Insane to me that a man who wins 77% of his games in the SEC gets booted out??? I know their offense has been pathetic the past couple years but still. 114 wins in 11 seasons and 4 games comes to an average of 9+ wins a season with a 7-4 bowl game record, 1 NT, 2 NT appearances, etc.

But they're not firing him because of what he's done over the past decade. They're firing him because they don't think he's the answer going forward. He's in his 60s and his offenses have been terrible for a few years now. It's harsh to fire him mid-season but I can see their perspective.
 
We should add him to our staff and steal recruits from that area. He is after all a "Michigan Man".
 
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But they're not firing him because of what he's done over the past decade. They're firing him because they don't think he's the answer going forward. He's in his 60s and his offenses have been terrible for a few years now. It's harsh to fire him mid-season but I can see their perspective.
It's an ungrateful move by a cutthroat, SEC school. If you want to let him go, do so the last the last week of the season and give fans and his team an opportunity to thank him. There's nothing to be gained by firing him now. They're not going to find another coach for another several months. It's all we despise about SEC, win-at-all-costs sports on display.
 
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It's an ungrateful move by a cutthroat, SEC school. If you want to let him go, do so the last the last week of the season and give fans and his team an opportunity to thank him. There's nothing to be gained by firing him now. They're not going to find another coach for another several months. It's all we despise about SEC, win-at-all-costs sports on display.

Exactly.
 
I'd anticipate at any Big10 school (maybe not OSU) that a guy with that record would be paraded around before being gently shown the door. It was probably time for a change, but certainly not after a heartbreaking loss and after he's accomplished a ton for them.

Yep. See Joe Tiller, incredible what he did there from 1997-2004 but he was fading in the 2005-2008 era. He got the year-long thing (which was called a "retirement").

One might argue that Iowa --- with the recent contract extension --- is just beginning their TEN year version of this with Ferentz.
 
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Yep. See Joe Tiller, incredible what he did there from 1997-2004 but he was fading in the 2005-2008 era. He got the year-long thing (which was called a "retirement").

One might argue that Iowa --- with the recent contract extension --- is just beginning their TEN year version of this with Ferentz.
Ha, ten year version. Many has Ferentz milked that Iowa gig for all it's worth.
 
The reason they fired Miles now was they wanted to reason to keep him on after last year. They wanted him gone and played nice and learned their lesson.

I believe it was classless. Sort of like filing for divorce on Christmas Eve. LSU was taking no chances this time.



RM
 
It's an ungrateful move by a cutthroat, SEC school. If you want to let him go, do so the last the last week of the season and give fans and his team an opportunity to thank him. There's nothing to be gained by firing him now. They're not going to find another coach for another several months. It's all we despise about SEC, win-at-all-costs sports on display.

I agree that it's harsh to not let him finish the season. They may as well have announced that he'd be gone at the season's end and let him ride it out.

But there is a potential benefit to firing a coach midseason: you can now openly court any coach you want, without any issue of going behind Miles's back and potentially alienating the players. It's likely that all three of LSU, Texas and USC will be courting Tom Herman this December, but LSU's got the head start. They might have him sewn up by Thanksgiving. Florida did that with Urban Meyer, beating ND to the punch.
 
This firing feels to me like the football equivalent of Road Rage.

For years we've seen disenchantment at LSU with Miles' inability to create a Quarterback-centric offense. While everybody in the neighborhood was designing attacks around strong, pocket passers or dynamic dual-threat types, the position always appeared as though, to Les, it was an afterthought. His approach was, to put it bluntly, Neanderthal.

Even while winning, there was audible grumbling about "Miles-ball" among the media and alums that began building momentum in 2014, resulting in what was nearly an ultimatum to Les that he put more focus on the QB position and the kind of passing attack that the Tigers were continually beaten by in critical games.

Who can forget the end of last year, when a seemingly-contrite Les was tied to the stake and the fires were lit. It was a miracle intervention that saved Les' job, and it all seemed automatic to assume the lessons had been learned, and that the 2016 Tiger attack would finally display some sophistication and finesse.

Everybody in Baton Rouge went apoplectic with the Wisconsin game, not because of the loss, but because the Tigers were defiantly their usual, unimaginative selves. It didn't matter that the ship was apparently righted; one more Miles-type loss and the button would be pushed. They didn't have long to wait.

I don't think the man actually understood this. Not any of it.
 
One might argue that Iowa --- with the recent contract extension --- is just beginning their TEN year version of this with Ferentz.

I'm the one that might argue.

Iowa will always be Iowa (mainly because it is in Iowa City), and will never see the kind of talent Miles squandered in Baton Rouge. Iowa will always be Iowa--blue collar and respectable--a developmental program that will never have top talent to work with. The Iowa fans I know and talk to understand this. In the main, they're grateful to Ferentz for consistently giving them the annual hope that, with a few unanticipated gems at skill positions, the farm-country Hawks could still take down the mighty Big Ten.

Ferentz in Baton Rouge, with that kind of talent, would murder the SEC.
 
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I'd anticipate at any Big10 school (maybe not OSU) that a guy with that record would be paraded around before being gently shown the door. It was probably time for a change, but certainly not after a heartbreaking loss and after he's accomplished a ton for them.

Any Big 10 school (maybe not OSU) would give Miles a career contract because he would have done something no other Big 10 Coach has done in a lifetime- win an undisputed National Championship.

It might be worth noting that at just about any other Big 10 school (except at OSU or Michigan) if they had Hoke's record while at Michigan, he would still be the head coach.
 
Any Big 10 school (maybe not OSU) would give Miles a career contract because he would have done something no other Big 10 Coach has done in a lifetime- win an undisputed National Championship.

It might be worth noting that at just about any other Big 10 school (except at OSU or Michigan) if they had Hoke's record while at Michigan, he would still be the head coach.

Nebraska would be the other exception. Pelini (another one with ties to LSU) went 67-27 at Nebraska and won over 9 games every single year there - EVERY SINGLE YEAR - and was still given the ax. I would say most coaches have a short leash now. Anybody with Hoke's history where each season with his recruits kept getting worse would have been fired. Don't look at his overall record but rather the fact that we regressed every year.

I think your arguement is actually right for Rich Rod. Other then OSU & Michigan if you had a coach that went from 3 wins to 5 wins to 7 wins - showing improvement - he would have been given at least 2 more years - even at Nebraska. I think with Hoke, unless he coached at Purdue, he was bound to get axed - 11 wins, then 8, then 7, then 5. Sounds like he's playing golf and going backwards.
 
Nebraska would be the other exception. Pelini (another one with ties to LSU) went 67-27 at Nebraska and won over 9 games every single year there - EVERY SINGLE YEAR - and was still given the ax. I would say most coaches have a short leash now. Anybody with Hoke's history where each season with his recruits kept getting worse would have been fired. Don't look at his overall record but rather the fact that we regressed every year.

I think your arguement is actually right for Rich Rod. Other then OSU & Michigan if you had a coach that went from 3 wins to 5 wins to 7 wins - showing improvement - he would have been given at least 2 more years - even at Nebraska. I think with Hoke, unless he coached at Purdue, he was bound to get axed - 11 wins, then 8, then 7, then 5. Sounds like he's playing golf and going backwards.

The way RichRod finished the 2010 season - losing to Wisconsin by 20, OSU by 30 and Mississippi State by 38 - I don't know how safe he would have been at another school. His biggest problem, beyond his overall record, was that his teams always peaked in September and regressed the rest of the season.
 
The way RichRod finished the 2010 season - losing to Wisconsin by 20, OSU by 30 and Mississippi State by 38 - I don't know how safe he would have been at another school. His biggest problem, beyond his overall record, was that his teams always peaked in September and regressed the rest of the season.

I don't disagree - but you can not argue with progress. Yes at Michigan or OSU he would not have cut it. In his first year they could beat nobody...at least by Year 3 his teams were beating the lower echelon teams. I guarantee you an Illinois or Minnesota, etc would GLADLY have taken him and probably given him a raise.
 
The way RichRod finished the 2010 season - losing to Wisconsin by 20, OSU by 30 and Mississippi State by 38 - I don't know how safe he would have been at another school. His biggest problem, beyond his overall record, was that his teams always peaked in September and regressed the rest of the season.

I hated that so much. Thinking we might have a good season with RR, and then the only high point in the years was beating ND and a #9 ranked Wisconsin . False hopes.
Just horrible.
I think I'm gonna be sick just thinking about it.
 
Here is the great misconception in college football...that somehow you win 6 games and you are a good coach and deserve some more time. Well not at some schools. It's not that hard to win 7 games at UM. You have non conference patsies...let's give 2 wins.

Then you are going to play 9 conference games and at least 3 are going to be bottom dwellers (Purdue, IU, Rutgers, Illinois) so that is 5 games in the win column. You are then going to have another 3 games out of the remaining 6 games that are against mediocre teams (Northwestern, Maryland, Minnesota, PSU) and some of them will be at home.

So doing the math you can get to 6 or 7 teams pretty easily for any program that has some upper level talent.


RM
 
Here is the great misconception in college football...that somehow you win 6 games and you are a good coach and deserve some more time. Well not at some schools. It's not that hard to win 7 games at UM. You have non conference patsies...let's give 2 wins.

Then you are going to play 9 conference games and at least 3 are going to be bottom dwellers (Purdue, IU, Rutgers, Illinois) so that is 5 games in the win column. You are then going to have another 3 games out of the remaining 6 games that are against mediocre teams (Northwestern, Maryland, Minnesota, PSU) and some of them will be at home.

So doing the math you can get to 6 or 7 teams pretty easily for any program that has some upper level talent.


RM

Agree. In our case, the 2008 season was an extreme outlier - no matter how good or bad of a coach RichRod was, we were certain to improve from that because we had far too many institutional advantages not to. Going from .250 to .500 at Michigan is a dead-cat bounce.
 
Any Big 10 school (maybe not OSU) would give Miles a career contract because he would have done something no other Big 10 Coach has done in a lifetime- win an undisputed National Championship.

It might be worth noting that at just about any other Big 10 school (except at OSU or Michigan) if they had Hoke's record while at Michigan, he would still be the head coach.
Not really, PSU would have likely dumped Hoke, so would have Nebraska. OSU and UM are not the only guys around with rich, storied histories. In fact I don't even think MSU would have kept him, they dumped Smith for about the same sort of results.
 
Great to hear that Harbaugh might be reaching out. I think it would be awesome to bring him here in some capacity.
He's an outstanding line coach, helping shape arguably one of the greatest decades of UM lines from 87 to 95, I'd love to see him around helping Drevno whip these guys into shape.
 
Agree. In our case, the 2008 season was an extreme outlier - no matter how good or bad of a coach RichRod was, we were certain to improve from that because we had far too many institutional advantages not to. Going from .250 to .500 at Michigan is a dead-cat bounce.
Yes. A perfect description....a dead cat bounce. You have to almost be incompetent to finish under .500 at certain schools.

Carr was a master of keeping his proverbial head about water at 8-4. In fact at a school like UM a mediocre/average coach should be go something like this over 5 years.

10-2
9-3
8-4
8-4
9-3

This is the bare minimum. This will factor in some losses to rivals.



Reality Man
 
I hope LSU goes through some real pain because of this. Teach them a lesson that the grass is not always greener.
 
L. Miles should have stayed @ Okie Lite until the UMich job opened.
Next%20Big%2012%20Champs_zpsq91cjk2r.png
 
Nebraska would be the other exception. Pelini (another one with ties to LSU) went 67-27 at Nebraska and won over 9 games every single year there - EVERY SINGLE YEAR - and was still given the ax. I would say most coaches have a short leash now. Anybody with Hoke's history where each season with his recruits kept getting worse would have been fired. Don't look at his overall record but rather the fact that we regressed every year.

I think your arguement is actually right for Rich Rod. Other then OSU & Michigan if you had a coach that went from 3 wins to 5 wins to 7 wins - showing improvement - he would have been given at least 2 more years - even at Nebraska. I think with Hoke, unless he coached at Purdue, he was bound to get axed - 11 wins, then 8, then 7, then 5. Sounds like he's playing golf and going backwards.

If Pelini wouldn't have been such an ass towards fans & the media he wouldn't have been fired. Burned too many bridges. Not saying they were right to do it, but IMO that's why he got canned.
 
Just to clear up the blatant lie posted above about LSU's finances
1. LSU is self-financed and is flush with cash. If they want Bobby Petrino his buyout isn't a problem
2. This whole misconception was put in motion by a politician trying to scare people into approving tax hikes
 
Just to clear up the blatant lie posted above about LSU's finances
1. LSU is self-financed and is flush with cash. If they want Bobby Petrino his buyout isn't a problem
2. This whole misconception was put in motion by a politician trying to scare people into approving tax hikes

Yeah I don't get the impression that cash is going to be an issue for LSU especially as it pertains to paying a HC in football. I expect Tom Hermann to be their next coach. Unless they get Jimbo Fisher, I fully expect they go after the best young coach in country. LSU is a Top 10 coaching job in the country with the recruiting ground and they type of players you can attract so I expect we will see names like Dabo, Jimbo, Hermann, etc all thrown out there as potential candidates.
 
Money is definitely not an issue for LSU.

Am curious as to how the rest of there season will play out. I mean, what if they win out with Ed O?
Will people be calling for him to stay?
From what I heard on the radio this morning, people(lsu alumni and fans i assume) are already asking if hes gonna be perminent.
 
Money is definitely not an issue for LSU.

Am curious as to how the rest of there season will play out. I mean, what if they win out with Ed O?
Will people be calling for him to stay?
From what I heard on the radio this morning, people(lsu alumni and fans i assume) are already asking if hes gonna be perminent.

If they win out I'll call conspiracy theory. LOL
 
What happened to Miles is not a cutthroat SEC move. It's the way the system operates now. They have been wanting to get rid of him for years (remember last year?) When you are the face of a major college football program and you become stale even though you may have won it all in the past then you are expected to compete for the title every year!!!! If Saban starting going 9-3, 7-4 and losing bowl games then do really think that Tuscaloosa would not get rid of his ass? Yes they would. How about Rich Rod at UM? He found that out as well. If we eventually win one under Harbaugh and then we start going back to Brady Hoke numbers (record) then Harbaugh would suddenly become a loser and Michigan fans are tough to please.
 
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