re: How good was Mike Miley

Miley never got to realize his full potential on the football field. He was a one-man gang at East Jeff, but as LSU's starting QB he was stymied by mediocre receivers (leading WRs were Norman Hodgins and Ben Jones) and an overrated offensive line (which was eaten alive by Mark Olivari and the Tulane pass rush in the 14-0 loss in New Orleans). If you were from New Orleans, that night was a nightmare, but it was far from only Miley's fault.

I once saw him (batting left-handed...he was a switch-hitter) hit a home run at old Alex Box that landed on Nicholson Drive and one-hopped into the football parking lot. He played the shortstop position with perfection, sort of an old-school type player who played with a tobacco chaw in his cheek.

It became more and more obvious as the 1974 baseball season went on that Mike wasn't going to remain at LSU, especially not to play quarterback. Charlie Pevey was Charlie McClendon's offensive coordinator, and he never could figure out how to best utilize Miley's exceptional skills.
In baseball Mike appreciated coach Jim Smith (he even visited Smith on the day of his tragic accident), but he realized that there was nothing more he could gain at LSU. The Angels drafted him #1 (10th overall) that summer.
It's kind of ironic that the year after Mike left, the Tigers had their best team (40-16) in more than a decade, won the SEC and went to the NCAA tournament for the first time.
The football program, always slow to adapt under McClendon, had trouble recovering after Miley left. Instead of abandoning plans to switch to the Veer offense to better fit Miley, Pevey and Charlie Mac stuck with it with Carl Otis Trimble as the starting QB. The Tigers were a combined 15-16-2 in the first three years after Mike Miley left.
I'm pretty sure that Mike never married, but his fiance or girlfriend at the time was named Glenda and she was so hot we used to kid that she was why his batting average was 50 points lower than it should be.

I don't know what kind of quarterback Miley would have been had he chosen to stay one more year. After all, even when he had Bert Jones, McClendon couldn't figure out how to best use his quarterback.

In baseball, for perspective consider this:
After his senior year at East Jefferson High, Miley was drafted in the first round (24th overall) of the 1971 MLB draft. He was selected a few spots ahead of George Brett and Mike Schmidt. Mike turned down the Reds' offer to attend LSU. Three years later, he was picked in the first round again.

I remember attending his funeral. He was buried in the Garden of Memories on Airline Hwy in Metairie. Hundreds of people attended his funeral and the story led off the Channel 4 evening news.