Found this on a Oklahoma State Forum, it makes me nervous about his ability. Les Miles jumped. One can say he jumped ship, jumped the gun, but I say he jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. This isn't just sour grapes either...and I'll tell you why. Steve Spurrier leaves a top notch Florida program to Ron Zook. Easy enough for Zook to take all of that talent in place and keep it going, right?! Nick Saban leaves a top notch program at LSU with a recent national championship and a ton of talent. Suddenly Les Miles has the quick way to glory. He doesn't have to work as hard as he would at Oklahoma State. The next stop is another National Championship, then a quick jump to his ultimate goal, alma mater Michigan. It's going to be so easy now, right?! Miles, like Zook, will find it's hard to follow an act like Spurrier or Saban. When Zook was hired, he took a great reputation as a coach and within a few years was reduced to persona non grata at a swamp. Miles, after this year, was facing some growing concerns about his coaching ability. Lackluster defense getting worse instead of better. An inability to make good, if any, gametime adjustments. Inability to motivate. Inability to mount any hurry up offense. No sense of urgency when behind in the game. Several things were starting to close in on Miles. The place was starting to heat up. When the going got tough, Miles got going. Many can say it was the money -- he wasn't making enough. Things are very expensive in Stillwater as we all know. Some say it was the chance at a national championship. I do remember him mentioning that when he was hired at OSU. I guess it was too hard...and too expensive here. Either way, Miles is jumping our ship/frying pay/whatever and into the fire in Baton Rouge. It's going to be a lot hotter down south. One thing is for sure, Tiger fans won't cotton to many 7 to 8 win seasons as he will soon find out. Their fire is a lot hotter than our pan. Let's just hope he doesn't get Zook'd at LSU. RESPONSE: IMO, he won't be there long enough to get fired. This is just to set him up for the Michigan job that he knows is coming open in a year or two. He'll now have the big-time program experience that Michigan fans will demand.
I agree he may be the next Zook, but I disagree that he won't be here long enough to get fired. If he has success here, he won't leave for another school. If he doesn't have success here, he'll be fired.
If you think Zook had expectations, you haven't seen nothin' yet. This guy has jumped into the hornet's nest. I ran into Jimmy Ott today and according to him some of the big powers at TAF did not want this guy at all. He stated that this was a typical Cusimano hire by the powerbrokers of the BOS. Ott was particular disturbed on how the entire search process went which you stated nicely in one your threads. Considering what is outstanding in terms of bonds for some of the expansion, Miles will have to come out swinging, or he will certainly by KO'd by the expectations of a 10 win season next year.
I don't think UM wants him, but even if they do..and he goes, there will likely be more good coaches available at the time. Who knows...Saban may have flopped at Miami by that time (though I doubt Nick flops anywhere he goes).
This could turn out to be a great hire. This could turn out to be a not so great hire. Skip rolled the dice with this hire. As I've said before, the process to find the new HC appeared rushed and limited in scope. As such, it's a roll of the dice. Foolish me . . . I thought that LSU had progressed the stage where we had to gamble on a replacement HC when we just won the BCS National Championship not even one year ago.
Here is to wondering if he does spring to Michigan, whether or not he is worried about long term recruiting... even if we pulled a decent coach in, I hope we have at least top 10 recruiting classes while he is here.
I am going to give him a chance and not try to run him out of town before he gets here. I hope no one starts www.firelesmiles.com I might buy the domain just to try to prevent it. Of course I will reserve the right to use it if I feel the need. (lol)
lsu has a lot more talent than florida had when zook took over but with the wrong coach it can go bad really quick. i am really most worried about what he will do about the coaches he brings in, all the coaches i see hired in the sec get coaches with sec experience, i am worried about what he will do with our defense.
Hmm . . . Ott didn't like the process? Ott didn't care for the Coach Hiring PROCESS? That makes TWO of us. The Coach seems OK. The PROCESS stunk.
