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Rabalais: Despite baggage, ex-LSU coach Les Miles deserves college Hall of Fame shot
Posted on 7/27/25 at 10:46 am
Posted on 7/27/25 at 10:46 am
LINK
quote:
For a long time, the criteria for a coach to be considered for the Hall of Fame was this: have coached at least 100 games over 10 years, be retired for at least three years and be at least 70 years old (or 75 and active) and, the clincher, have a career winning percentage of .600 or better.
The National Football Foundation, whose membership selects candidates for the Hall of Fame, in May called an audible on the .600 winning percentage rule, lowering the threshold to .595. NFF president and CEO Steve Hatchell said at media days that the NFF determined that .595 is statistically still 60%. All’s fair when it comes to rounding up in football, apparently.
It’s common knowledge in the college football world that the NFF did this because of the groundswell of support for the late Mike Leach to become eligible. Leach was beloved for his brash and quirky personality, and he was widely respected as an innovator behind the prolific Air Raid offense. But the former Mississippi State/Texas Tech/Washington State coach had a career win percentage of only .596.
quote:
The change may have been mainly intended to benefit Leach, but it has collected a lot of other coaches in its net as well (Rodriguez also is currently at .596). That group also includes former Mississippi State/Texas A&M/Pittsburgh coach Jackie Sherrill (.595) — and Miles, who is at .597.
There is one last requirement for a coach to be on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame: You must be nominated by a school where you coached. For Miles, 71, that would be LSU, Oklahoma State or Kansas (Michigan, where he was an offensive lineman, couldn’t nominate him because he wasn’t a first-team All-American). And that’s where things could get sticky for The Hat.
quote:
One wouldn’t expect Kansas, where he went 2-18 over two rocky seasons, to help him out. Same for Oklahoma State, where Miles went 28-21 in four seasons but left for LSU in 2005.
At LSU, Miles went 114-34, giving him an on-field career winning percentage in 18 total seasons of .665 (145-73). But LSU forfeited 37 wins on Miles’ watch, stemming from the Vadal Alexander improper benefits mess involving Our Lady of the Lake Foundation president/CEO John Paul Funes. That officially made Miles 108-73 for a winning percentage of .59668.
Miles left behind a lot of baggage at LSU, making it at least questionable whether the school would want to go to bat for him to get him on the Hall of Fame ballot. He sued LSU over the 37 forfeited victories, though a judge dismissed the suit in March.
And he reportedly reached a secret settlement with a former LSU female student who accused him of sexual harassment, which came to light in 2021 as part of the infamous Husch Blackwell report.
quote:
Again, there is no telling whether LSU is willing to nominate Miles after all their history together, good and bad, but there is no indication that a nomination is off the table, either. LSU officials have time to ponder their position. The .595 rule doesn’t go into effect until the 2027 Hall of Fame nomination process.
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Posted on 7/27/25 at 10:50 am to 610man
quote:
He deserves to be in.
Agreed. And LSU forfeiting those 37 wins was bs
eta: *vacating
This post was edited on 7/29/25 at 2:10 pm
Posted on 7/27/25 at 10:53 am to 610man
I agree that he deserves a shot (while holding nose at the same time)
Posted on 7/27/25 at 10:54 am to MRTigerFan
“Deserve had nothing to do with it” William Munny
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:07 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
How many championships would Les have won if Saban stayed in Miami? 2007, 2011 for sure. 2012? 2015?
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:08 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
I think most reasonable LSU fans agree he belongs in the hall of fame.
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:16 am to TDsngumbo
Ehhh, Les mailing it in vs Bama in that shite show national championship game and doing the same thing vs Wisconsin in a season opener would be very tough for me to overlook. Almost as bad as O after the natty.
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:22 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
Deserves to be in the HOF for what? For doing les with more?
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:30 am to Draco Malfoy
quote:
How many championships would Les have won if Saban stayed in Miami? 2007, 2011 for sure. 2012? 2015?
I think the real question is how many championships would lsu have won if they hired anyone competent to replace Saban
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:30 am to sta4ever
Impossible to do less with more when the more was because of Les.
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:33 am to Draco Malfoy
quote:
How many championships would Les have won if Saban stayed in Miami? 2007, 2011 for sure. 2012? 2015?
Think about all of the talent we had on those teams. Then think about the fact that we would have had even more talent on all of those teams if it weren’t for Saban…
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:34 am to king47
quote:
I think the real question is how many championships would lsu have won if they hired anyone competent to replace Saban
I’m waiting on your list… I’m assuming you’ll have guys like Urban and Spurrier on it…
This post was edited on 7/27/25 at 11:44 am
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:36 am to MRTigerFan
quote:
Agreed. And LSU forfeiting those 37 wins was bs
Total BS in my opinion. Question about this tho, are these vacated wins? Or are they forfeited, do they become losses? Also, what became of the losses we had in that span? Did we just vacate the wins and the losses stayed? If we vacate wins from that span I suppose we should also vacate the losses too right?
It’s all horse shite. We won those games, you can’t change history. We won or we lost. I hate that aspect of all this. LSU is always a pussy when it comes to this stuff, most other schools that are on our level don’t bend the knee like we do as often as we seem to do it.
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:39 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
He deserves what he’s got. He refused to modify the offense, refused to make any changes on 1/9/12 and refused to make a real effort in developing QB’s. He would have had multiple national championships, many more wins and got to leave LSU on his own terms if had done 2 of those 3. He left wins on the table due to his stubbornness so let him live with that.
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:45 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
Miles’ stubbornness was good for beating the teams that he should always beat because no one could out muscle LSU besides the upper level teams. There was rarely a surprise turd outing in the first 7 seasons. Now, where his stubbornness cost him was in trying to beat the great teams. He may do it occasionally but he got smoked by Alabama the majority of the time. His unwillingness to adapt on offense meant that he was ultra predictable and when we faced superior or evenly matched talent, we lost a lot.
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:45 am to wryder1
quote:
He left wins on the table due to his stubbornness so let him live with that.
I mean you could say that every coach ever has “left wins on the table”
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:51 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
Miles had his problems with offensive coaching
But, his teams
Never gave up/played hard all 4 qs
Were tough as nails
Elite OL and defense every year
Never lost to teams while favored to win
Never had issues running the ball
Never got blown out
But, his teams
Never gave up/played hard all 4 qs
Were tough as nails
Elite OL and defense every year
Never lost to teams while favored to win
Never had issues running the ball
Never got blown out
Posted on 7/27/25 at 11:59 am to HailHailtoMichigan!
This is a decent post if you remove every sentence that contains the word “never”
Posted on 7/27/25 at 12:01 pm to Major Dutch Schaefer
The fact that LSU is going to have to nominate him doesn’t bode well. He left the program in good shape, but he also did what he did that cost the university millions from title IX events and a reputation hit. For that he will never get in. I don’t think he deserves to be in for that reason.
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