I think people may put too much into it, but it's still a legit concern. Pelini would chew his guy's butt out. He was always fired up on the sideline. He leaves and the defense totally collapses... it just seems there is no accountability or something, however, we don't see what happens in practice.

It does look like when someone does something stupid like celebrating when they are getting blown out, arm tackling, etc., Miles denies it and doesn't really get worked up about it. You would think that someone should get chewed out sometime, I don't care if it is on TV.

CP, I hear you. Some people may put too much into it but football is an emotional sport. I like that Miles seems together most of the time but I wish he would get in somebody's business when they continue to screw up (not necessarily the players)

Well, that's just it. Bo Peep was an assistant, the DC; he should be getting fired up and emotional at the players. He's learning that's not necessarily the stand a head coach needs to take. There's been plenty of instances where Miles has shown his passion on the sidelines. I think defensive coaches are a little more apt to show it than offensive coaches, for the most part. Just because a coach doesn't necessarily show it in public doesn't mean he's not passionate. I guarantee Skip Bertman wasn't blowing sunshine on those trips to the mound. He just didn't show it outwardly.

That said, the one thing that seperates good coaches from great coaches is their ability to find great assistants, and, consequently, make adjustments to the staff if those assistants do not perform at a high level. Loyalty to assistants shouldn't be to the detriment of the team (i.e. Auburn).

Hey WestCoast, maybe Rick Venturi could straighten this D out?

Actually, the defense has been collapsing since the second half of the South Carolina game last year. Go back and look. For whatever reason, and believe me, I'm frustrated and don't know the answer, we STOPPED PLAYING AGGRESSIVE, IN-YOUR-FACE DEFENSE. Pelini infuriated me last year, too, and I was happy he was leaving.

But we didn't really replace him, did we?

As for Miles' demeanor, a previous poster wrote that he knows a player, and Miles is tough away from the cameras. I met one of Miles' OSU players at pt in the summer of '06, and when I asked if Miles was too easy on his players, he said, "There are two totally different sides to Les Miles--the one you see at games, and the one you see at practices. He was the toughest coach I ever had."

Some, including yourself, are already there.

Totally agree; aren't these two guys simply trying to run Pelini's defense?

Now we talkin'. Ricky V back to Louisiana. DHead did you see they got outscored 250-37 or something crazy like that the last 5 weeks. I think it was 75-3 in the first half 2 weeks ago.

Jimmy Haz gets a promo and Ricky V gets a promo and they proceed to get pounded on D.

Whew, that would be some defense with Ricky V running it.

Well, I didn't want to say it, because the last time I said something like that, a bunch of excuses were made about injuries and blah, blah, blah. The Pelini scheme was on it's last leg last year and doesn't work in the SEC anymore... we're paying for it now.

So I agree; however, Pelini did get in his guys' faces and they seemed to be more fundamentally sound (i.e. better tackling) last season, even if the collapse started last season.

I agree that CLM ranting and raving at players on the sidelines is not always a good thing but it is occasionally necessary in certain, isolated circumstances. The thing that I've noticed this year is CLM not getting in the referee's faces more.

I remember the LSU-UT game in 2006 in Tennessee. Les had been Mr. Calm and Cool all season on the sidelines and the team didn't seem to have the fire. Remember him pitching a fit over some bogus call and looking up at the press box in disbelief? I believe he even mouthed the f-bomb on national TV. Remember his brief interaction with the female analyst at halftime? The team played with fire in the second half of that game -- coincidence? IMO, they saw their leader doing everything he could to help them win and it motivated them.

That fire in Les continued until this year and I for one would like to see him kick some ref tail a little more because I believe it helps set a tone among the players.

:lsup: