Great article in Birmingham paper

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Put some pants on.

As with a lot of things Les Miles says, you can read a lot into those words.

Take it at face value, and it was the punch line to his cameo with Mike the Tiger in a TV commercial for EA Sports and its NCAA Football 13 game.

Peel back a layer, and it could be, probably should be the theme for the LSU football team as it gets ready to report for practice for the 2012 season.

Sure, you got undressed by Alabama in your own home-away-from-home stadium in your own state in the BCS Championship Game.

Yes, 13 straight victories against the toughest schedule anyone can remember unraveled into insignificance with 60 minutes of incompetence and inferiority.

So what? It's over.

Forget about it. Grow up. Be a man.

Put some pants on.

Does anyone doubt that Miles and his Tigers will take that advice and, sufficiently draped with talent again, run with it? Does anyone really believe that game broke the spirit of the coach and the program that have won more games than anyone in the SEC since he arrived?

I don't.

I know, I know. I was there Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa and Jan. 9 in New Orleans. I saw LSU outlast Alabama in a gut-check of a regular-season game, and I saw Alabama exact its revenge in the more important meeting with a scalpel and a sledgehammer.

I saw Miles salute the Alabama students in Bryant-Denny Stadium before the game of the century, and I heard an LSU parent torch the LSU coach in the Superdome after the rematch of the millennium.

It takes a strong man and a strong program to survive that kind of public humiliation, but studying him for seven years now in the jungle known as SEC football, one thing seems obvious.

Miles is that man, and LSU is that program.

There are a lot of reasons to expect LSU to take a serious run at another SEC championship and another BCS Championship Game. It starts with all those quality players, but beyond the returning starters and the upgrade at quarterback, look at the head coach. Look at how he handled an entire off-season of unsolicited psychoanalysis.

Miles didn't change. Miles didn't hide. Miles was Miles.

His typically off-beat itinerary included visiting the U.S. swimming trials in Omaha and sneaking into a College World Series game while he was there. It also included making that commercial with the school mascot and answering more questions about defeat than any big winner since Steve Spurrier.

If you're wondering if a coach that's not used to losing can bounce back from the worst defeat of his career, let your mind wander back to 1995 and 1996.

In 1995, Spurrier and Florida ran undefeated through the regular season and the SEC Championship Game and then ran into Nebraska 62, Florida 24. In 1996, the Gators went undefeated until they lost to rival Florida State to close the regular season.

How did they react to all those mixed messages? By blitzing Alabama in the SEC Championship Game and Florida State in a rematch for Spurrier's one-and-only national title. If Spurrier could be humbled that badly and respond that well, so can Miles.

LSU actually has a slogan picked out for this year. It's supposed to be the rallying cry for the entire athletic program. It comes from the fight song, and it's featured on the cover of the football media guide.

What is it? "Stand Right Up and Roar."

Not bad, but it's not exactly fresh and original, zany and quirky, practical and metaphorical, which means it's not exactly LSU and it's definitely not Miles. Besides, he's already given his players all the motivation and instruction they need.

Put your pants on.

Better believe they will. Everyone else better man up.

I kinda hate this article.

Reading the article was OK, but reading some of the comments was too much to stomach. I used to think that with some of the fans it was just bravado, but some of their comments are just ugly, stupid, and insulting. I can remember when Bama wasn't bragging about much of anything. I like to cut people a lot of slack when they act like "fans," but some of these comments make me wonder what they're thinking.

TRy on these comments.

"Say what you want, but teams have a hard time recovering from Bama beatdowns. Auburn fired tubs, Texas still isn't over it, Urban got run out of the swamp and the Gators are still hurting. Sort of a common theme if you're smart enough to see it.
We'll see if Les has the mojo to overcome it. Several great teams haven't."

And how about this?

"Also Georgia, Clemson, PSU, Va Tech, and the most famous, Miami. Miami, the thugs of college football, and rulers of college football for a decade, were beaten into oblivion by ALABAMA in the 1992 National Championship game, and arguably have not recovered to this day."

I have a feeling that when Alabama rolls into to town, they will slash and burn and people will commit suicide in contemplation of their mighty presence. I think there is more to the demise of a program other than the all-powerful Bama won a game against you. I hope we beat the ever-loving snot out of them.

Cool article, relax on the comments, people who take time to post a comment under an article aren't exactly the cream of the crop

I see nothing wrong with the article.

same guy that wrote this article: Did 21-0 cost LSU a title and its nerve?

Yeah, he must have studied law at some point to cover both sides of the fence that well.

Really costs him some credibility with me.

Thanks for digging that up.

Great article!

quote:

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were beaten into oblivion by ALABAMA in the 1992 National Championship game, and arguably have not recovered to this day."

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classic

Brick that is b.c all Bama fans live in la la land and have no clue to reality at all. They are funny though. I can not wait to slaughter them and send that loser Saban back home where he belongs. Bama wont be any where near the NC talk this year nor should they have been in 2011.
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Bricktop


Great article in Birmingham paper

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Some of the comments are a reminder of how arrogant their fans are. i hope we slaughter them