Once again, it's time to put the Tennessee game to bed. It sucked, we lost, everyone was pissed, now get over it.
At first I wanted Miles' head ever the game like everyone else. Then I realized that maybe it was not his fault. Here is why.
1) 2 major hurricanes devestated the state, the university was an evacuation shelter, the team could practice at their normal routine.
2) We were all mad about the defense and the soft zone. This was directly related to the disrupted practice schedule. To effectively run the complicated blitz packages we have seen recently, they must be practiced relentlessly. Everyone has to know his responsiblilty. The DE needs to know what zone to drop into when LBs are blitzing, LBs need to know where to go when corners and safeties are blitzing, DBs need to know their assingment when anyone is blitzing. If not practiced (due to 2 hurricanes) someone will miss an assignment and the D gets burned.
3) Even when up 21-0, we hadn't played well. TN recivers missed tons of passes, Ainge missed wide open recievers, we got 2 gift TDs (one after a fumble, on when Ainge threw the INT to Hollis). Hell, even the other TD was set up by a fluke flee-flicker.
4) We played a piss-poor 2nd half all the way around. And yes the coaching was not real good either.
I could go on and on, but the point is there were extinuating circumstances that, for the first month of the season, prevented the coaching staff from running the system they wanted. It resulted in a tough loss to what turned out to be a bad team. It happened, its over, the team has gotten better.
I for one am proud of the way Miles has kept the team together. Yes in 3 or 4 years when Miles has his own recruits we may learn that he is not a great coach, but we need to give him time. Right now this year, he has done a good job and has us right were most reasonable people thought we would be before the storms.
Finally, if you still don't think Miles has done a good job, let's look at another Louisiana coach: Jim Haslet. He has let his team fall apart at the seams, has complained about the travel, bitched about a bogus home game in NY (see LSU in Tempe) and has used the storm as a built in excuse for losing. LSU's coaches have not done this and should get credit for it.
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