How did Les always do so well in opening games?

Les gets crapped on but he was a very good coach until he did not change with the times. Saban saw what was happening in the game and changed. Miles failed and became a relic.

But, He had the team prepared and mentally and physically tough.

Talent and great staff.

He did have a great record in openers and out of conference games but his teams laid down against mediocre to bad Ole Miss and/or Arkansas teams every year instead

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How do you think he did it?

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Music in the locker room

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If you ask me, it was a miracle we were as close as we were last year to florida st considering all the turnover, additions, subtractions

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FSU was not a good team last year We played like total arse and still could have easily won that game.

Les Miles was a good coach.

Because he had his team mentally ready. Maybe the BIG CAT drill needs to come back to separate the men from the boys?
Right now, LSU looks tentative and far from being close to physical dominance against the player across from you.

Les was notorious for long and physically demanding practices. That definitely had some downside. But LSU was often ready for the physicality to start the season whereas opponents who took a different approach may not have been.

Kelly takes the approach of not being as physical (i.e. full contact) in preseason camp. The reason for that is obvious. You don't want to wear out your players and have multiple key injuries before the season even starts. But, the downside could be your guys are not fully prepared for the significant increase in physicality that comes in an opening game vs. a good team.

A co-worker yesterday was mentioning he spoke with Gordy Rush in the days after the game. One thing Rush mentioned is that he was speaking with some FSU staffers/coaches before the game Sunday and they mentioned how they were going full contact every other day for appx. two weeks prior to the LSU game in order to get ready. LSU didn't do that because that's not Kelly's approach. I think everyone would agree FSU was the more physical team on Sunday. Is there a correlation between that and how both teams chose to prepare? Maybe. But I think that's probably why you saw Les's teams be physically ready to go in game one. (O wasn't as physical in preseason camp as Les either).

Again, that's not to say one approach is better than the other. Limping to the finish because your guys are physically exhausted isn't ideal either. But if you are going to play top competition to start the season maybe the approach is to be a bit more physical in practice than you may be if you were playing a "buy game"

Les was a winner. His state all of a sudden stopped producing QB's and Nick Saban going to Bama really hurt the program. Add in all the back stabbing because of the snake Joe Alleva and the perfect storm occurred.

Les was rarely outcoached. 1/9 is an example. Of course the game earlier in the year Les gave Saban a coaching clinic.

Contrast that w/ Coach O who was outcoached almost every big game at the end. And even Brian Kelly has been outcoached several times already.

Les had his issues and it was time that LSU found a coach that could recruit and develop a QB, but he didnt last 12 years in the SEC west by being the coach most think he wwas. In fact, who has lasted 12 years with the same team in this league in the last 25 years?