Here's to Coach Les Miles.........

Coach, prior to your damn strong football team taking the field against a pretty good Florida team today, I just thought it would be appropriate for me to thank you for continuing to make Saturdays in the fall have meaning. While I recognize that before your arrival to Baton Rouge, you were left with great talent and a winning tradition, others have been left with a similar hand of cards, and were not able to stay at the table successfully. I thank you for keeping us in the poker game that is college football.

You've made many of us scratch our collective heads at time. We're not real sure why you eat grass, and your choice of quarterbacks has, at times, made many of us question your ability to discern talent. Likewise, your seemingly endless string of strong recruits, your ability to win close games, and your knack for knowing when to call rooskie type playes makes most of us defer to your judgement on decisions that we don't understand.

Most of us believe that your 2012 team has not played it's best football yet. In fact, the team's play has been undeserving of its lofty ranking on many occasions this year. Many of us think that gets fixed today. I do, and your continual positive outlook tells me that you probably do as well.

If our football team loses this game today, many fans will call for your head, and say that your best days as coach are behind you. I have no crystal ball, and give no opinion on that. What I do know - unequivocally - is this. Saturdays between September 1 and December 31 mean something to me. While they've been important for many years now, and while you weren't the architect, or even the builder, you've been an awesome property manager - maybe the best we've ever had. You deserve credit for that. I enjoy the fact that it's 11:00 am on Saturday, October 6, and I don't want to do anything other than think about the game you're going to lead our team through in 3.5 hours, because there were many years when I didn't care.

Again, coach, many many thanks. We appreciate you, and your continual fielding of teams that have a chance to win every time they take the field.