re: My take on Miles

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Good news for Alabama and Nebraska, who now have the coaches who were apparently responsible for that.




Each time I think I've read the dumbest thing possible, someone proves me wrong.

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I assume you aren't suggesting that Miles had anything to do with the 2003 NC or that Saban didn't, so I'll address 2007.

In 2007, we had a senior class recruited by Nick Saban and a defense coached by Bo Pelini, and we won the NC. In 2008, sans that senior class and that defensive coach, we are the worst defending national champion in at least 65 years, the worst LSU team in nine years, and the worst defense in the history of the school. We suffered from lack of discipline and leadership that was provided by the quality guys who were seniors last year, lack of defensive motivation and execution that we always seemed to have under Pelini (albeit in a frustratingly flawed scheme), and a lack of team unity and cohesiveness that we had enjoyed for many years.

Based on the drastic change from 2007 to 2008, while losing only assets that were directly related to Saban and Pelini, it's quite clear that the 2007 national championship had more to do with them than with Les Miles.

If you can't see that, the "dumbest thing possible" is staring you in the face every morning while you are shaving.

Here's what you don't have to be in practice to see: you don't have to be in practice to see players chest thumping and celebrating while down four touchdowns. You don't have to be in practice to see Ricky Jean-Francois, an upperclassman, mouthing off to the media. You don't have to be on the "inside" to see the players on the sideline confused, yelling at their coaches and scrambling to figure out the play all the way through the last game of the season. You don't have to be a team member to see these players hang their heads and sulk the moment the slightest thing in the game goes wrong. You don't have to be in the huddle to know that Rahim Alem does not care one bit what Coach Miles thinks, and kicked the ball knowing there would be no consequences.

This is a result of the hands off, player's-best-friend approach Miles has been using for four years now. A culture on the team has developed where attention to detail is no longer important. As a previous poster said, the leadership, raw talent and experience (which Miles inherited) is no longer there to bail us out, and you saw the results of it- the absolute miserable unmitigated disaster that was this season.

Do you people not understand that we were one lucky comeback away from MISSING A BOWL GAME? Do you not understand that we had a LOSING SEC RECORD?

There are some very serious problems going on with this football program, the kind we have not seen since DiNardo.

I love how some people still think we have the best kept secret in college football. There's probably a reason that in four years, despite the record, outside teams have shown a minimal interest in hiring Coach Miles away.

Unless the new defensive coordinator is able to singlehandedly change the culture on this team, or Miles drastically changes his ways of dealing with players, expect more disappointment in the future. I am not saying Coach Miles does not have the capacity to turn things around, but I have a hard time believing we'll be back to where we were unless he does a complete 180 in regards to his management style.

Hey y'all.

Geuss what coach this was, HINT: he wore a funny looking hat (not Miles)

He had won 3 NC's in the 60's and then went,

1968 - 8-3
1969 - 6-5
1970 - 6-5-1

and we didn't fire him. He was putting in a new offense called the wishbone and everyone said he was an idiot, and he was an old man that had lost it and didn't know what he was doing anymore. Also, and this is a good one, the game of football had passed him by. That is one of my favorites.

Instead of firing his assistant coach, offensive coordinator to be specific, (like Tubbs did becasue of fan pressure) he stuck it out, told the fans to kiss his arse on national television and continued to do what he thought was the right thing to do for his team.

Look what happened next:

1971 - 11-1
1972 - 10-2
1973 - 11-1 NC's
1974 - 11-1
1975 - 11-1
1976 - 9-3 (probably should have fired him here but glad we didn't because look what happened next)
1977 - 11-1
1978 - 11-1 NC's
1979 - 12-0 NC's
1980 - 10-2
1981 - 9-2-1
1982 - 8-4

If we would have fired him in 1968,69, or 70, it would have cost us three NC's and about 10 SEC Championships over the next decade. In college football today he would have been fired because we live in a society that wants it all right now.

For those that couldn't gues it, I was talking about the original "hat" Coach Paul W. Bryant also know as "The Bear".

Truth sux doesn't it.

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We are trending downward and if you do not see it you are not looking

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We have four point on the graph..........

11-2, 11-2, NC, and 7-5.

This is not a trend, this is a blip, if next year is 8-4 or worse, then it is a trend.

a gump understands our coach better than most of us

I think some of us needed to hear your analysis
being that your on the outside looking in. We
are all too close to the situation (being bad)
to be objective and are looking for someone to
blame it on so we can get it fixed yesterday....
So I am going to try to lessen my criticism of
Miles and use a lot of prayer in his up coming
decisions regarding LSU football. But, hire a
new D.C. before they all go somewhere else.

I still think Dick Bumpas is a great one.

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BamaScoop

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Dinner is on me at N.O. Food and Spirits. I will be back in the Ham in two weeks.

Well, here is another problem to address...LM gets hammered outside the BR press and LSU fanbase...i.e. Finebaum...and I'm sure there are others in the media spreading their venom.

Is it only LSU's fanbase and message boards that denegrate LM?

Sorry to be negative, but the team I saw play against Ole Miss & Arkansas appeared to have quit on the coaches, or in spite of the coaches. They simply were not the same team at the beginning of the year- not to say that a lot of players didn't gave 100% but obviously something was lacking...

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Dinner is on me at N.O. Food and Spirits. I will be back in the Ham in two weeks.

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I' not going to come to the game. Let me know when you get in town.