Things like this are part of the reason Les is a good recruiter. A high school athlete is influenced by a lot more people than just his head football coach. He's around all of the school's coaches and other athletes. If Les puts a positive buzz about LSU around the entire school, not just the blue chip football prospect, it helps to sell LSU to the player.
Clearly Les is not writing all those letters, but the impact is the same. He probably came up with the idea, may have dictacted the original premise and may sign them all...but his secretary or someone else is doing all the writing I'm sure.
I wouldn't be so sure. Many people put great store by writing personally. I'm sure many form letters do go out from the coaches office, but I suspect the personal ones were hand-written by Les. He's already a collectible autograph, so there's no point in trying to fake letters that would be recognized. A coach takes advantage of his strengths. Perhaps Les is not very eloquent when talking to the media. But he might very well be a fine and elegant writer, so he uses it.
Don't know about that. It would probably be obvious from the handwriting that someone else wrote the note and he just signed it. Probably wouldn't make much difference to the hs kid, but it could come across as a bit phony to the parents, hs coaches and administrators. A handwritten note is meant to be personal, and there is nothing personal about the secretary writing it and Miles signing it. IMO, a form letter would be better than doing that. I'd be willing to bet that he wrote them if it's really a handwritten note.
If LM has a list in front of him that had the kid's name and event they won, it wouldn't take forever just to write something short like "Dear -------, Congratulations on winning the -------------- at the State Track Meet. Sincerely, Les Miles" Or something even a bit longer on a note card, then have the secretary do the envelopes and mail them all. The amount of time it took would be nothing compared to the amount of good will it would generate for the University. I would be willing to be he wrote them himself.
If this is true, I think it is very admirable and classy. Yes he may have the motives of helping him recruit football players at that school, but there is no guarantee that a prospect would come from that school. I think it would be very good for recruiting. What if it is a team sport, does he write letters to all of them or just the team? Some say this can't be true because it would take way too much time. Well, he maybe only writing state champs, which wouldn't be many but it may also be district champs too. Who knows? I would like to hear or see some verification of this though. I think it is a great gesture and a classy thing to do and represents LSU well.
If he's writing every district champion of every sport, major and minor...men and women, then I'd be impressed. Perhaps he's just writing a sentence or two.
I wish Nick Saban wrote me a letter when I won the state butterfly championship. Of course Gerry Dinardo was the coach the fall I won.
Dear LSUsupaFan, Congrats on winning state in the butterfly event! I look forward to many years of seeing you around campus. Sincerely, Curley Hallman :thumb:
