here is why I still support Les Miles. the National Perception of the LSU coaching job is nowhere near as glamorous as some people seem to think it is. If LSU were to fire the guy who currently has the highest winning percentage of any 5 year stretch in school history, the job becomes even less enticing. No established HC will be interested in a job where best winning % in school history, plus a NC will get you fired. So you can pretty much scratch all of those potential candidates off of our list. personally, i'm not thrilled about any of our assistant coaches stepping up to take the job, so scratch them off the list. now, you're left with a crop of guys at small schools still trying to "make it". Dan Hawkins was one of them, and supposedly couldn't miss. he missed Tommy Bowden was one of the next great ones. um how'd that work The guy who coached Brett Favre at Southern Miss, then completely buried a once great program was supposed to be a good one too. that guy just got fired from a High School coaching gig. Sure, some of them have worked out as good as can be imagined (Urban Meyer comes to mind), but several weren't ready for the big boys. so, you either hire one of them, and hope you get the right guy, or you go the re-tread route. who is out there? Tuberville? one SEC title in over a decade in the league what happens when that guy finishes 3rd in the West a couple times, or heaven forbid lose a bowl game? do we fire him too? start the whole process over again to fill a job that is now even LESS desirable than when we hired this guy? every school I can think of who ran off coaches with Miles success rate only got worse under their new guy. Usually took them a couple guys after that to get it right again. sometime this process can take decades to correct.
Very interesting that virtually all of the pro-Miles responses so far have had almost nothing to do with what he actually brings to the table, but more along the lines of we're stuck having to pay him through at least 2012 because of the NC. But for those that say it looks horrible to get rid of the winningest coach in LSU history, wouldn't it look just as bad if LSU decides not to renew his contract? Or is everyone actually counting on Les producing .500 teams or worse to justify it? As far as the glamor part of the job, Alabama seems to disprove it. Their glory days were well behind them and went through HC's like toilet paper before Saban became available. If anything, it seems to indicate that if you throw enough money at a coach, it overrides any other single consideration.
see part in bold. this part proves my point. i would prefer to avoid this part of the process. other schools that have attempted it: LSU when Cholly Mac "retired" - from '80 until '00 couple flashes of greatness, a lot of right around average teams, and at least 8 years of absolute garbage (funny how it happened to be the same money hungry guy "available" for both schools). Nebraska fired Solich - nobody wanted the job. had to settle for a guy the NFL just ran off. Now they got a guy who was never a head coach before Nebraska. Will Bo work out? looks good so far, but always a gamble to give a guy his 1st head gig. Michigan when Carr "retired" - turned down quite publicly by several candidates. even the guy at Rutgers decided to stay where he was even though he was losing the best player in Rutgers history (Ray Rice) and has zero chance of ever winning a National Title at Rutgers. Auburn after tubby "resigned" - ended up settling for a guy with a 5-19 career record. 5-19. will he bring them back to where they need to be? maybe. his track record ain't all that though.
I guess my question is even if Les doesn't get his contract extended beyond 2012, won't LSU be wandering in the wilderness anyway unless there's a big-time, proven HC on the market to throw money at? LSU definitely caught lightning in a bottle with Nick, who knows if our current administration will be nearly as adept at spotting the next big thing.
not sure what would happen if they decided not to extend his contract. could always fall back on the whole "we couldn't come to an agreement" and spin in LSU's favor at least.
LSU has great fans of all varieties. Message boards reflect the feeling of a fanbase. If players use them to help gauge the situation they are going into, so be it. Should we be selling a line to pull the fleece over a young man's eyes? I'm down with genuine statements and honesty, myself. Where do you think LSU ranks as a program, nationally? Pretty high as I see it. The sole SEC program in a state that produces a lot of talent and that is adjacent to Texas. The national perception of Miles is nowhere near as glamorous as you seem to think it is. Hiring a new coach is always a gamble. Sticking with Miles is also a gamble, except that we have 5 years at LSU to judge him on. A large segment of the LSU fanbase wouldn't put a lot of money on Miles at this point in time. If we were to hire a new coach we'd hire experts to make the best decision possible. This is a bad argument you're making, IMO.
i'm biased, so my opinion doesn't really count never said the perception of Miles was glamorous. never even hinted at that. what i did say is that potential replacements will not be interested in a job where winning gets you fired. ESPECIALLY in this conference. it doesn't matter how you, me, or anyone else feels about HOW we got this winning percentage. all they're going to notice is that we sh!t canned a coach with a pretty impressive W-L record in the SEC. it becomes an even bigger gamble when you scare off all the best potential candidates by firing the winningest coach you've had in 50 years.
can anyone name a school that has ever FIRED (without some type of scandal or something causing the firing) a guy with a .773 winning percentage and not gotten worse in the immediate future?
LSU I Like, I agree with your point about truth and honesty and I believe we get both wholeheartedly from you. But honestly, you assert that LSU is the greatest HC job in the world. When it comes to your point about why LSU is the greatest coaching destination in the world, it's because we're the only SEC team in a talent ridden state. So what's new about that? That's been true since football began at LSU (with the exception of the Tulane in the SEC years). That's been true since Stovall returned, or Archer or Hallmann or Dinardo etc. Where did all those national coaching candidates end up during those years?...it doesn't look like they ended up at LSU?
