re: How critical is this season for Miles?

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why we're looking at the prospect of losing as many or more games than 2000 and 2001 when we were rebuilding the program.

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Could it be because our schedule contains Florida, Bama, Georgia, and Ole Miss?

Could it be due to preseason rankings such as Phil Steel's who rates Florida #1, Ole Miss #6, Bama #8, and Georgia #13?

Tell me why Saban's 2004 team lost three games. and why his 2005 team lost 5 games. This is the SEC.

Tell me why Meyer at Florida lost 4 games in 2007 after winning the BCS in 2006.

This is college football, you idiot.

How many losses would Florida be looking at if they lost their starting QB like we did last year? Would they be a favorite to beat LSU this year?

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However, the man had a damned good W/L record & recruited well. So my feeling is he was a good coach as far as W/L's, but could not control those players. Whether or not you think he's a good coach at 60-15 is up fro debate I suppose.

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It is up for debate because the record is so gaudy.

He inhereted a talent base second to none without question (Miles inherited a very talented team, but not the undisputed best), most of a very good and experienced staff and was lucky enough to be able to recruit to a school where at the time he took over was probably more popular and identifiable with high school gridders than any in the country.

It took awhile because what he inherited was so very well set up. But eventually his mediocrity shined through.

After finishing poorly in 2005 he did what many coaches do when they feel some pressure and sense things are slipping, he axed assistants.

But those assistants weren't the problem. The problem IMHO was the head coach and it manifested itself with a 6-6 season the next year and the seeds he sewed, and another poor hire of Shannon has the once mighty Canes mired in mediocrity.

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How critical is this season for Miles?

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Not as critical a season as it is for loser-boy Mark Richt...

I haven't hesitated to be critical of Miles when I felt it was valid, but I believe the Coker comparisons are out of line. The only thing they have in common is the fact that they inherited programs at the very top of college football and were expected to retain that status.

However, unlike Coker, Miles had previous success as a head coach of a college football program, where Miami left their juggernaut of a program to absolute chance. Also, even though I don't particularly care for a few aspects of the team's discipline/culture under Miles, I don't think that's anywhere within the realm of the embarrassment that was the Miami program under Coker. I honestly can't understand how he wasn't fired immediately after the Peach Bowl against us.

I anticipate Miles will improve his record from last year to this year... this one-year improvement is something Coker was not capable of apparently.

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AGREED!! A coach that makes HIS money should NOT be 8-5!!

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Yet your savior makes more money and led his team to a 6-6 season. Care to explain?

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also our teams have gotten weaker the past 2 years (yes i know we won the title in 07, but that was with 2 losses. 2006 > 2007

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How do you figure 06>07. Please enlighten everyone with your wisdom. Both were 10-2 regular seasons but in 07 we won 2 championship games. Those aren't given away. Winning 2 championship games makes 07>06 and saying otherwise is just stupid.

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haven't hesitated to be critical of Miles when I felt it was valid

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Let's keep it real though, you're not really pulling for the Miles regime to succeed and stick around. I'm not sure you've ever made a post where it was clear you were on his side.

According to Randy Shannon, Coker did very little player analysis. Instead of spending time looking at players and making their own evaluations, Coker and staff relied on Rivals' and Scout's evaluations.

Miles and Coker are 180 degrees different when it comes to player evaluation. Miles is not afraid to evaluate and project a player at a totally different position he played at in high school or evaluated by Rivals or Scout.

Furthermore, the talent level Coker inherited at Miami was far superior to the talent level Miles took control of when he replaced Saban.

In additioin, Miles has improved the quality of our coaching staff, especially at OC. Coker's coaching staff has proven to be very weak, no comparision to the quality of coaching now at LSU.

The Coker/Miles comparison is totally bogus.

In fact, Miles was the first coach to totally demolish a Coker team in a bowl game, and the rest is history.

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Let's keep it real though, you're not really pulling for the Miles regime to succeed and stick around. I'm not sure you've ever made a post where it was clear you were on his side.

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Quite the contrary. First of all, even if what you said is true, which it's not, there's no realistic chance of him being fired anytime in the forseeable future, which means there would be no reason for me to root that to happen. He's our coach and I am behind him. I hope that his teams find a way to regain their 2005/2006 form and he can retain that long term, and retire here.

If Les Miles fails, it won't be good for the football program. There were just a few things we became accustomed to under Saban that it doesn't appear Miles is very concerned about, and I wish he would be. These being player discipline, attention to detail, and overall defense.

It's just a fact that these aspects of the program have been emphasized less and less each year during the Miles regime, until it finally materialized last year in a very ugly way. How did it get to the point where the arse kicking teams we watched during the early part of the decade who were known for their toughness and defense, suddenly morphed into one with players dancing, chest thumping, and taunting the other team while down four touchdowns, or flat out quitting like in the Ole Miss game?

I think he's done a good overall job of running the program and I will generally defend him to other schools' fans, but I am not going to bury my head in the sand and pretend there aren't some question marks at this point in his tenure. I am not the only one who has said that and I think it's egregious for you to suggest I am less of an LSU fan for this.

Don't confuse my defense of Saban with bashing Miles. Most of the time when I say something about Nick Saban, Miles is not even mentioned anywhere in the post. I think he's the best coach in our program's history, and really it's only current LSU fans who haven't accepted that. Do I prefer his style of coaching to Miles'? Yes, but I understand not everyone does, and both have produced wins.

Most of the time I am having to serve as the counterpoint to bullshite like the revisionist history around the Gerry DiNardo regime- something that has come around only since Saban went to Alabama, and solely for the purpose of discrediting Saban's accomplishments here. Prior to that point, Gerry was as much a pariah as any of our other coaches, and our fans' shameless reversal of attitudes shows how petty we are. And it's very embarrassing to me, as an LSU fan.

The rest of the country pretty much understands we were not relevant in the years immediately preceding Saban, and very relevant by the time he left. I don't see why this is inflammatory at all, but the homerism on this board is cultish, almost to the point of something you'd expect to see in a totalitarian society... to the point where you can't even have a rational conversation.

So that having been said, I really don't care what you think. I'll root for LSU and Les Miles, his career at LSU will play itself out the way it does, and it's in his hands. I like the staff changes he has made and hope they are succcessful.

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the revisionist history around the Gerry DiNardo regime

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the funniest thing about this website