Les was turned off by divisions in the UM program

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A Done Deal Dies


The news that Les Miles is remaining with LSU is shocking to everybody, even some of his closest friends.

I was on the phone with one of Miles' boys Saturday morning and he was telling me some of the names Miles was bringing to Michigan. He sounded excited as ESPN reported this to be a done deal. The details were exciting and it sounded like Michigan was breaking the mode of Bo Schembechler and Lloyd Carr and doing something that would make this an elite program again.

We hung up and he called me back 15 minutes later and said there has been a major snag. LSU had sweetened the offer and he said that Miles had second thoughts. Money was the major factor but there was something else Miles got a bad vibe about.

He knew he was coming to enemy territory. He feared that he would never be embraced by Carr and that he'd be fighting that the entire time he was here. Miles wanted to retain some of the Michigan assistants because he respects their ability. However, he feared that he could not. They were loyal to Carr and he feared divisions within the program before he even got started.

Michigan was offering good money. It did not match the $3 million he will get at LSU but the Wolverines were willing to go as high as $2.4 million to lure him.

When you heard this was a done deal, trust me it was. But a man is allowed to rethink things and change his mind. Even Miles' closest friends were paving the way for him get relearn the community.

In fact a private meeting between me and Miles was being set up after he got to town. That is how close this thing was.

Now Michigan must start from scratch. Let's see how Blue recovers from this shocker.

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