If Miles was a single point of failure, the players - regardless of how much they like him as a person - would not be united. We'll never know what the locker room really looks like because the staff would never put a trouble-maker in front of the camera, knowingly. But I sense there's unity from everything I've read and heard so far. That bodes well. Lots of maturity on the team. Considering there are so few seniors, that's a good sign.
What bothers me the most, is the booing and negativity started almost immediately. I heard boos watching the Missisippi State game. When the fans are bailing on you in the first half of the home opener, that's just absurd. It's like you expect the worst to happen. It then snowballed over the next two weeks to booing every three-n-out, to now booing everytime Jordan Jefferson is the quarterback and throws an incompletion or the offensive play goes for less than five yards. This is crazy! We had a huge thread on the game experience and the crowd for West Virginia, which I read but didn't comment on, but let's just say I agree with most of what was said there. It was terrible. The players don't deserve that. This ain't the pros, these are young college men. They are not here for your entertainment, they are here to play for their school, and you get the privilege of watching these athletes compete. Some people may need to have that privilege revoked. I think the players are still bewildered by all this negativity surrounding a team that is 5-0, ranked in the Top 10, and has yet to face a non-BCS cupcake. That's a pretty good result. Wins are wins, right? It's all about wins and losses, right? No, apparently not. Seems like ever since the blown lead against North Carolina and the offensive struggles vs. Vandy, the negative fans have made up their mind; this team isn't good enough to beat Saban at Bama, it's bad enough to lose maybe three or four games besides Bama, that's just terrible, awful, and unacceptable, and they're just waiting for the other shoe to drop and the losses to begin, and they will stay PO'ed and negative until that happens, because why lift your hopes and enjoy wins only to be crushed at the end? Seems quite bleak, but that's honestly what it seems like to me.
Don't you think the reaction is a carry-over from last season, and not so suddenly? And I don't know about the rest of you, it's not 100% about the wins and losses for me. It's about the health of the program and where it's headed. I am not on the same page with those who say, "just win and I don't care how it happens," or "I don't care if the coach is a buffoon on TV as long as he wins." I don't think we have to sacrifice those things to win and I hope Miles improves on those things. I didn't feel great after the "Blue Grass Miricle" and I don't feel great after this past weekends win, however, I am not negative about the prospect of turning things around. And finally, we've played cupcakes this season. Until we beat a legitimate ranked team, then we will still have something to prove.....starts this weekend by beating the gators.
"Should be" is the operative phrase, though. What you say is more true in the NFL. The college game is influenced by emotion a lot more heavily. It's easy to say that players shouldn't need bulletin board material or something to get motivated, but that's just not the reality of it. Look what Florida did in 2008. They got pissed off after the Ole Miss win and spanked every remaining team on their schedule. These guys are still kids, not robotic professionals.
I get why they love Les & why they are defending him. I really do. I love my dad & to this day, I look up to him for a lot of stuff, but I also can recognize when my dad is in over his head.
I agree, and actually I think it has more to do with focus than motivation. Sometimes adversity focuses a good team and they become great. Especially in amateur sports. We'll see. LSU has a tough road to ride and seem to be short a couple of spark plugs...
I can only imagine how fed up the players are with the fans. I've been fed up for a while now. Just sayin ...
