What happened to Les Miles?
He went from making Oklahoma State a winner, to making LSU a title contender every year and winning a National Championship, to getting snubbed as Michigan's coach for Hoke, to a winless season as the Kansas Jayhawks head coach.
Is that him losing his stuff, an indictment of how bad Kansas has historically been, or both?
December 10th, 2020 at 4:07 PM ^
They have turf in Lawrence not grass. He isn’t able to get his competitive edge
December 10th, 2020 at 5:35 PM ^
Weird - I guess I just assumed that they played on highly polished maple.
December 10th, 2020 at 5:37 PM ^
Whoosh.....
December 10th, 2020 at 6:13 PM ^
“What do you prefer Rodney grass or AstroTurf” “I don’t know I’ve never smoked AstroTurf before”
December 10th, 2020 at 4:07 PM ^
Coaches age too (except Saban, apparently). He's 67.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:25 PM ^
That and recruiting matters.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:10 PM ^
He's 100yrs old, crazier than a $3 bill and at Kansas - so by definition he has zero chance.
December 10th, 2020 at 6:23 PM ^
Truth.
December 10th, 2020 at 10:17 PM ^
+1 for the great film reference.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:10 PM ^
He's always been a bad coach...just like Harbaugh, Ogeron, Shades, Fleck, Coach K, etc.
December 11th, 2020 at 11:21 AM ^
This is a hot take here but it is what LSU fans believe.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:12 PM ^
He's older, Kansas is REALLY hard to win at, and the bag you get at LSU or even Okie St. isn't available at KU for football.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:23 PM ^
Yep. Whatever his flaws, Mark Mangino's Orange Bowl winning season at Kansas is maybe the most underrated coaching accomplishment of the past 25 years. It was as if he taught a dog to play the piano.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:34 PM ^
It really is an incredible feat.
December 10th, 2020 at 7:27 PM ^
I read that as feast.
December 10th, 2020 at 9:19 PM ^
I see what you did there.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:44 PM ^
Agreed. And Glen Mason had some quality years there (10-2 in '95).
Getting both Kansas as high as #6 in the country and Minnesota as high as #12 was impressive, IMO one of the more underrated coaches in recent decades.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:44 PM ^
Edit: Double post.
I'll just say here that, certain games aside, the 2007 season was awesome. I think the #2 team in the country kept losing several weeks in a row...
December 10th, 2020 at 5:14 PM ^
The big matchup of that season was Kansas vs Missouri. Illinois made a Rose Bowl. South Florida was #2 at one point. West Virginia was #2. Oregon was a #2 team. Hawaii was a top 10 team.
Abd for the only time in the BCS era, a two loss team won the title.
Strangest season ever (throw in the Horror).
December 10th, 2020 at 8:37 PM ^
Oregon #2...was that when Dennis Dixon tore his ACL (in a loss at Arizona???) to derail their chances?
December 10th, 2020 at 5:41 PM ^
It really was amazing. And I mean, he turned out to be a pretty tough guy to like but Kansas somehow went 12-1 and were #2 in the country at some point. 2007 was a...weird year all around but it should never be ignored how great an accomplishment that season was.
December 10th, 2020 at 6:59 PM ^
He was a former Snyder assistant at Kstate.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:54 PM ^
This is exactly why people are jumping on the Matt Campbell train. He is young. Iowa St is REALLY hard to win at. Historically harder than even Kansas. You also don't get the bag at Iowa St.
December 10th, 2020 at 8:43 PM ^
I like Campbell...but Devil's Advocate question here:
Being at a place like Iowa State, does Campbell have the luxury of sneaking up on teams? Teams like Oklahoma get everyone's best shot, and they are bound to have days where they overlook a team. Or, did the sneaking up go out the window the more they have pulled upsets?
Just thinking out loud (but not really, just typing) that Ohio State typically loses that random game to a Purdue who plays it like their National Championship. Does Iowa State pull those same wins?
December 10th, 2020 at 10:59 PM ^
He’s been there long enough where Iowa State isn’t just sneaking up on people.
Plus this is D1 football. You take every opponent seriously and treat it as a big game. Hell there isn’t that many games in a season anyways.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
I thought he got arrested by Sherriff Bosworth. Is he still in jail?
December 10th, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
Fansville Correctional Facility. Getting that steady diet of Dr. Pepper. Or Diet Dr. Pepper if they eyeball the screws.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:22 PM ^
Being head coach at Kansas pretty much is a jail sentence, too.
December 10th, 2020 at 5:04 PM ^
Les make close to 3 mil a year. I'll take that jail sentence any day. I'd probably win as much as him too.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
He’s coaching Kansas. He’s old. He probably was never a great coach
December 10th, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^
I think he was a really really good coach...in his time, 2005-2011. 2005-2007 he wins 11 games, 11 games, and 12 games plus the natty. Then in 2011 he goes 13-1 wins the SEC championship game and loses the natty. Was he Saban great? Nah. But he was still one of the best coaches in his day.
I think he's just another example of a coach who's really good when it's his time to shine and then starts to fade as the game passes him by. After going 13-1 in 2011 he went 10-3, 10-3, 8-5, 9-3, 2-2. So clearly his output declined until the writing was on the wall and LSU realized it was time to move on. And realize Les Miles did all this while hauling in some fantastic recruiting classes, so it's not like the team was just a dearth of talent. I also think that he clearly got a jump start from Saban's time at LSU, though I wouldn't give Saban all the credit.
To me it's a good lesson in catching coaches at the right time. If LSU catches Miles too soon or too late, they probably never get that natty, or those 11+ win seasons. Sorta makes you think about our situation with Harbaugh. Did we just get him at the wrong point in his career? I think an argument could definitely be made that we're on the down-swing end of his coaching bell curve, so it just makes you wonder "what if" if we had landed Harbaugh say back in 2007 when he was still young and up and coming and fresh off two back to back 11-1 conference title winning seasons at San Diego. Lloyd could have retired sooner like he wanted. The Rich Rod era probably wouldn't have happened and the program wouldn't have gotten tanked. Obviously Hoke probably doesn't happen either. Ryan Mallet probably sticks around, etc.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:51 PM ^
-1 for "natty"
December 10th, 2020 at 5:04 PM ^
Everyone’s a critic lol
December 11th, 2020 at 3:15 AM ^
god awful. It's like saying pop instead of soda.
December 11th, 2020 at 9:25 AM ^
So very wrong you are. It's pop. You want Soda? There's a button for that.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:56 PM ^
holy disproportionate reply, batman
December 10th, 2020 at 4:57 PM ^
I believe his h2h vs saban is 50/50, not many coaches can say that. Some of you guys are totally down playing his past achievements
December 10th, 2020 at 4:59 PM ^
Miles suffered arguably the worst BCS/playoff hose job of all time. He beat Bama, at Bama, during the season. No way he should have had to beat them again. Home field matters and LSU took care of business on the road. I don't care that game 2 was a neutral site, and don't care if Bama was the second best team. Really shouldn't have mattered and LSU shouldn't have had to prove it 2x.
I'm extra salty about it because of 2006, when M lost on the road. Straight up BS.
December 10th, 2020 at 5:05 PM ^
I agree. I’m still cheesed about that as well.
December 10th, 2020 at 5:31 PM ^
So clearly his output declined until the writing was on the wall and LSU realized it was time to move on.
Yep. LSU realized it was time to move on... to Ed Orgeron... So they moved on, but definitely not up.
December 10th, 2020 at 7:16 PM ^
But at least they tried something else when they knew what they had was no longer working. I’d rather try and not succeed than just not try at all
December 10th, 2020 at 9:34 PM ^
But they promoted Ed Orgeron. Were they really trying?
December 11th, 2020 at 3:27 PM ^
They got a NC out of it so I bet LSU is satisfied with the promotion.
December 10th, 2020 at 6:13 PM ^
Like this kind of Natty?
December 10th, 2020 at 7:21 PM ^
Exactly like that kind of natty!
December 10th, 2020 at 9:39 PM ^
Good take Mitch.
In a nutshell, the reason the first time Les was a candidate and got shot down (assist from Herbcreep):
The second, about 4 years later, it was this:
December 10th, 2020 at 4:20 PM ^
Oh he's at KU. The place where coaches and players go to play Halo and then football if they get time.
December 10th, 2020 at 4:21 PM ^
Above average program manager. Fantastic recruiter. Mediocre x's and o's coach. He came to LSU at an opportune time after Saban set the foundation.
Frustrated the LSU fanbase by absolutely wasting incredible offensive talent every year but always kept LSU in contention and eventually broke through with a natty that one fluky season. In the twilight of his career the game's evolution towards offense was not kind to him.
December 10th, 2020 at 5:24 PM ^
And he's terrible at finding a decent QB. LSU has all the talent in the world yet they couldn't get a good QB.
December 10th, 2020 at 5:54 PM ^
I mean you could even make the argument that he hampered QBs too. Matt Flynn did display some ability along with Zach Mettenberger. Have to wonder what could have been if the offensive coaching staff in Baton Rouge was able to help them develop even a little bit. Even allowing Justin Jefferson to run a QB run that wasn't the veer would have been nice. Alas, hindsight is 20/20.