Kansas finalizing deal to hire Les Miles
I suspect this will fail miserably, but at least it will be interesting.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/11/8/18076190/les-miles-…
November 16th, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^
Why in the world would Les coach this dumpster fire of a program?
November 16th, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^
Friendly reminder that Kansas has more BCS bowl wins than Penn St.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:21 PM ^
That, and, if they give him time to build a culture, he will do great.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:06 PM ^
I don’t think that’s correct.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:15 PM ^
I don’t think that’s right....
I know Kansas has that Orange Bowl win, but Penn State also has one, and a Fiesta Bowl win from last year. No way in hell Kansas has more than one.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:26 PM ^
It’s also a meaningless statistic. How many does Michigan have, two? Is that disparity (2-1) indicative of the gulf in football tradition between Michigan and Kansas?
November 16th, 2018 at 7:23 PM ^
Michigan was 2-3 in BCS games and PSU was 1-1. Kansas was 1-0.
It is kind of meaningless in that it just a brief slice of college football time. For example, who are some of the other teams to win one BCS game? Tennessee (the first BCS title game) UCF, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, and...Clemson.
November 16th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
It's sort of half correct. Penn State vacated their Orange Bowl win, so in that sense Kansas has more BCS bowl game wins than Penn State.
If you're talking about New Year's Day bowl games, though, Kansas has just the one (they're 6-6 all-time in bowl games). Penn State won more of them in the eighties than Kansas has all time.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:24 PM ^
The answer, as always, is money.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:36 PM ^
He settled his payout from LSU and it cost him $5 million. So, my guess is that he's making that back in the first year at Kansas.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:27 PM ^
Who has Les turned down? He wants to coach. This is his opportunity to do it.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:35 PM ^
This is GREAT news. There was talk about Ed Warriner being up for that job. He does have a KU background from back when they were actually good at football in the Mangino era.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:27 PM ^
He spent the past few years finding out what the market is for head coaches older than 60 and found out it was either this or retire. I guess he doesn't want to retire. He's also an insanely confident guy, so I'm sure he thinks he can do at Kansas what he did at Oklahoma State 20 years ago.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:30 PM ^
Why not? He wants to coach, he's probably not going to get a top level job. Expectations at Kansas are literally win more than one game, so he'll have plenty of space and autonomy to rebuild like he wants. If things work out, then he's got a launchpad to a better job If not, he can probably ride out the rest of his career there and retire before they'd fire him.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:31 PM ^
$$$$$$$$$
November 16th, 2018 at 8:43 PM ^
Natural turf.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^
I think Kansas uses artificial grass, so I assume at least one condition of him signing is that a piece of sod will have to be placed in front of him at all times to munch on.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:33 PM ^
Instead of a cord carrier, a student manager will follow him around with a square foot of sod.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:02 PM ^
As long as we keep Ed Warinner and The Don I'm happy.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:04 PM ^
My guess is they'll long for the good old days of Charlie Weis within a couple of years
November 16th, 2018 at 6:07 PM ^
Were there any "good old days" with charlie weis, other than for the local restaurant owners???
November 16th, 2018 at 6:32 PM ^
You mean Mark Mangino? Is he still with us?
November 16th, 2018 at 6:37 PM ^
Yes he is. Just read an article about him. Maybe my alltime favorite morbidly obese football coach. Him or...wait for it...Abe Gibron. If you remember ole Abe you are older than dirt.
November 16th, 2018 at 7:12 PM ^
i remember abe from the old nfl follies films
November 16th, 2018 at 7:13 PM ^
also, that toledo coach from a few years back could have been mangino's twin brother.
November 16th, 2018 at 7:07 PM ^
Yes, but the pizza parlors in Lawrence miss him dearly.
The meter maids do not, however.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:04 PM ^
November 16th, 2018 at 5:05 PM ^
Les brings crazy with him; which is a completely different element that Charlie. The result will probably be the same, but hey- new guy!
November 16th, 2018 at 6:43 PM ^
Charlie Weis is crazy as hell, just a different kind of crazy.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:55 PM ^
So is "Crazy Guy" < or > "Schematic Advantage Guy"???
November 16th, 2018 at 5:06 PM ^
Talk about a grave walk thread.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:07 PM ^
I think this will fail, but more because of Kansas than Miles. I think the comparisons to Weis are a little unfair. Les did not fail at LSU the way Weis failed at Notre Dame. Not even close.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:41 PM ^
Miles failed at LSU because he couldn't develop a quarterback and schematically fell behind his peers. He recruited well at LSU, but recruiting at Kansas is so much more about identifying talent than it is actually recruiting, because Les aint beating out Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, or Arkansas for a kid in the Great Plains. He may win a recruiting battle or two against Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU or K State, but probably not consistently enough to build a consistent winner. He has to be able to find diamonds in the rough and adapt his scheme towards the lack of talent. I don't think a 65 year old Les Miles is capable of pulling it off. Personally, I think it'll fail miserably because Les just did not catch up to modern football. Maybe he'll adjust and I'll be wrong as hell.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:55 PM ^
Miles needs good coordinators. He looked good when Jimbo Fisher was his OC, and less so when it was Cam Cameron.
November 16th, 2018 at 6:03 PM ^
Well most coaches need good coordinators, the problem is Les hires bad ones way too much. Anyone could have told you Cam Cameron wasnt gonna work out well.
November 17th, 2018 at 6:29 AM ^
Not be be a prick, but I hope you are "wrong as hell". You make very valid points no doubt. I like Les and hope he does well at Kansas. If he can somehow deliver 6-8 wins a year there and get them into some bowl games I think that would make the fan base happy. It's a very tall task indeed, but glad to see him back in coaching.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:10 PM ^
Les Miles to Kansas Best Kansas coach since ...
Edit: deleted the fat reference. My wife said that was mean.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:12 PM ^
Les is Svelte compared to Weiss.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:44 PM ^
He was looking for a GOOD overweight Kansas coach. I presume he meant Mangino.
November 16th, 2018 at 7:34 PM ^
Weiss is less svelte than Les.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:42 PM ^
Weiss got a fat pay check.
November 16th, 2018 at 9:16 PM ^
Whoops
November 16th, 2018 at 5:11 PM ^
Good hire for Kansas, but they are still kansas and will be bad at football
November 16th, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^
Bringing the Sas back to Kansas?
November 17th, 2018 at 6:57 AM ^
...and Mangino and Weiss brought the cans
November 16th, 2018 at 5:17 PM ^
This isn't a good fit but Kansas wanted a splash signing. Les Miles really needs a strong OC or he'll fail because LSU offense has been fucking awful when he's the coach. We'll see how he'll recruit now that he doesn't have the home state advantage that he enjoyed as a LSU coach.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:47 PM ^
100% agreed. If he finds the next Lincoln Riley or Chip Kelly that can come in and put together a capable offense, then he could pull this off. But his last 3 offensive coordinators were Gary Crowton, who is currently the OC at a high school, Cam Cameron who is unemployed, and Greg Studrawa who is responsible for the Ohio State offensive line. Not exactly quality or inspiring hires.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:51 PM ^
Ground and pound with a good defense might actually work in the Big12. It's doing wonders for Wilcox at Cal.
November 16th, 2018 at 5:54 PM ^
He's gonna bring in RR so they can be tied together again.