Les Miles vs. Eddie Robinson

I grew up when Eddie Robinson was still coaching Grambling. The reverence and accolades he recieved as being the winningest coach in CFB history (at the time) was immense. How he did it, by molding quality young men was equally impressive. And I always recalled when reading the paper, which seemed to always be printing out his entire record for review, that the man had his fair share of bad years intertwined with solid winning seasons.

My point of this post is not to claim that Les is Eddie Robinson, but when you review their records I think you'll see that Les has maintained a high level of consistency even in "down" years. Whereas Eddie had many losing seasons along the way.

LSU doesn't always look "good", but we win. We win a lot. We win more than nearly every other CFB program since 2000. Eddie's losing seasons didn't make him any worse of a coach than when he went 10-0, but it's reasonable to expect CFB records and programs cycle up and down depending on a lot of factors - just like every other business sector.

In this world of immediate gratification, it's important to have a little patience and realize a solid foundation and the entire body of work is more important than some flash in the pan success that gets you through today only to leave you worse off two years from now.

For the record, I'm not a Les fan but the numbers do speak for themselves.

Les Miles:
2005 LSU 11–2 7–1 1st (West)
2006 LSU 11–2 6–2 T–2nd (West)
2007 LSU 12–2 6–2 1st (West)
2008 LSU 8–5 3–5 3rd (West)
2009 LSU 9–4 5–3 2nd (West)
2010 LSU 11–2 6–2 T–2nd (West)
2011 LSU 13–1 8–0 1st (West)
2012 LSU 10–3 6–2 T–2nd (West)
2013 LSU 10–3 5–3 3rd (West)
2014 LSU 8–4 4–4 T–4th (West)


Eddie Robinson:
1941 Grambling State 1–5–1
1942 Grambling State 9–0
1943 Grambling State No Team
1944 Grambling State No Team
1945 Grambling State 10–2
1946 Grambling State 6–6
1947 Grambling State 10–2
1948 Grambling State 8–2
1949 Grambling State 7–3–2
1950 Grambling State 6–4–1
1951 Grambling State 3–5–1
1952 Grambling State 7–3–1
1953 Grambling State 8–2
1954 Grambling State 4–3–2
1955 Grambling State 10–0
1956 Grambling State 8–1
1957 Grambling State 4–4
1958 Grambling State 6–3 1–3
1959 Grambling State 4–6 2–5 T–5th
1960 Grambling State 9–1 6–1 T–1st
1961 Grambling State 8–2 5–2 T–2nd
1962 Grambling State 6–2–2 3–3–2 3rd
1963 Grambling State 5–3–1 3–3–1 T–4th
1964 Grambling State 9–2 6–1 2nd
1965 Grambling State 8–3 6–1 1st
1966 Grambling State 6–2–1 4–2–1
1967 Grambling State 9–1 6–1 1st
1968 Grambling State 9–2 6–1 1st
1969 Grambling State 6–4 5–2 3rd
1970 Grambling State 9–2 5–1 2nd
1971 Grambling State 9–2 5–1 1st
1972 Grambling State 11–2 5–1 T–1st
1973 Grambling State 10–3 5–1 T–1st
1974 Grambling State 11–1 5–1 T–1st
1975 Grambling State 10–2 4–2 T–1st
1976 Grambling State 8–4 4–2 T–2nd
1977 Grambling State 10–1 6–0 1st
1978 Grambling State 9–1–1 5–0–1 1st
1979 Grambling State 8–3 5–1 T–1st
1980 Grambling State 10–2 5–1 T–1st
1981 Grambling State 6–4–1 4–1–1 2nd
1982 Grambling State 8–3 5–1 2nd
1983 Grambling State 8–1–2 6–0–1 1st
1984 Grambling State 7–4 5–2 3rd
1985 Grambling State 9–3 6–1 1st
1986 Grambling State 7–4 4–3 T–3rd
1987 Grambling State 5–6 3–4 T–5th
1988 Grambling State 8–3 5–2 2nd
1989 Grambling State 9–3 7–0 1st
1990 Grambling State 8–3 3–3 T–3rd
1991 Grambling State 5–6 3–4 T–6th
1992 Grambling State 10–2 6–1 2nd
1993 Grambling State 7–4 4–3 3rd
1994 Grambling State 9–3 6–1 T–1st
1995 Grambling State 5–6 4–3
1996 Grambling State 3–8 2–5 T–6th
1997 Grambling State 3–8 2–6 T–7th