re: No Respect for Les Miles

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We lead the SEC, the very most powerful football conference in the college game, in wins since 05. You don't do that without coaching, talent, and luck.

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Who has the most National Championships since '05? Oh yeah, that little team from Tuscaloosa.

It's not about how many games you win. It's about how many times you were the champions of your said sport.

Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, never won a World Series. Nolan Ryan, won a World Series, now tell me, who's more revered in the baseball world?

Nolan Ryan or Sandy Koufax?

I'll take Nolan Ryan any day.

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In fact, why stop there? There are 119 other Division I schools who "let this happen" as well! They should also fire everyone!

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I love how his argument is that "miles let this happen" as if there is some type of two team vacuum in college football. If any body "let this happen" its the other conference division rival that is in the same state.

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You act like this is exclusive to lsu alone. Your bias is obvious.
You also will nit pick to find something wrong with the lsu program even though its on its most historic run in program history.
Obviously according to you there are tons that can achieve the kind of historic success that miles has at lsu. So where are they?

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Let's try to stay on topic. We were discussing whether or not Alabama 2011 had a "massive talent advantage" on LSU. If they did, Miles failed in recruiting by allowing his primary divisional rival to accumulate an insurmountable talent advantage. If they didn't, Miles failed on 1/9 by deploying a poor and predictable gameplan. One of those things is true.

Personally, I believe it's the latter. I believe LSU's physical talent is comparable to Bama's, but they have better instruction, better player development, and better game-planning. If it's the former - that is, if we are so far behind Saban in recruiting that they have an overwhelming talent edge - we're really in trouble.

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(1) It appears your position is that Bama 2011 had a significant talent advantage over LSU 2011.

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I won't speak for Baloo, but I can tell you that my motivation behind trying to put LSU's talent into perspective compared to other programs is because MILES BASHERS INSIST THAT HE IS A LUCKY BUFFOON WHO WINS DUE TO THE SHEER OVERWHELMING LEVEL OF TALENT AND THAT HE ACTUALLY HOLDS THEM BACK.

This is frustrating and asinine on a number of levels, so sometimes it is possible to overstate the talent levels when trying to point out how ridiculous that notion is.

That said, Bama's talent advantage in 2011 is fairly obvious by much more than just the number of All-Americans. First of all, pretty much any recruiting rankings would agree that Bama's classes have been better (for whatever that is worth).

Also, Alabama has had 4 players taken in the first round of the NFL draft the past 2 years and will have at least that number once again this year.

And the most glaring talent advantage for Bama was obviously at QB, the most important position on the field.

That gap closed considerably once JJ and Lee were no longer our best options, and you see how that translated on the field in 2012 with LSU playing Bama to the wire once again the way they have in every other Miles/Saban matchup with the exception of 1/9.



Now, that is not to say that LSU fans should be in hysterics over the state of our program.

LSU is a half step behind Alabama as the premiere program in the country right now, and had Saban not been granted a fortunate and unprecedented rematch in 2011, LSU may even be considered ahead of them.

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it can only mean that our coaches were completely outdueled and outmanuevered in talent evaluation and recruiting over the span of several classes. I hope that's not true.

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You know good and well that aside from the QB position after 2007, for a number of reasons, nothing could be further from the truth.

That position seems to have been addressed quite nicely at this point, so I have no doubt that our success will continue to improve as well.

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Would you seriously argue that the Dodgers should cut Koufax because he's not Nolan Ryan? Would cutting Koufax suddenly put Ryan on the Dodgers' roster?

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And NOW we cut to the heart of the matter.

How much respect did Miles have on the RANT after the Ole Miss game in 2009?

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Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest pitchers of all time, never won a World Series. Nolan Ryan, won a World Series, now tell me, who's more revered in the baseball world?

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Are you suggesting that is anywhere close to supporting your point?

First of all, I'm not convinced of your premise that Ryan is somehow a clear choice as more revered than Koufax. I'm pretty sure both Koufax and Ryan are accorded immense amounts of respect by pretty much anyone with even a passing familiarly with baseball. And to the extent Nolan Ryan is accorded more respect, I'm pretty confident it has a lot more to do with his major league record 27 year career and those SEVEN no hitters he threw -- almost double the number Koufax (or any other pitcher) managed -- than it does with those 3 1/2 innings of relief pitching he did in Game 3 of the '69 World Series. Hell, Josh Booty won a World Series, too; you think he's more revered in baseball than Koufax?

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Actually the game plan was the same that beat Bama in the first game, and the same plan that beat Arky at the end of the season, and the same game plan that beat UGA in the SECCG:

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Alabama -- We beat Alabama in overtime in a game with zero offense on both sides of the ball. A one-dimensional and scared offensive philosophy followed for the remainder of that season. Playing not to lose and relying solely on a solid defense was cemented in that game, something that was not the case earlier.

Arkansas -- Probably the best of the three games you mentioned. From memory, it was very tight to begin with and we benefitted from big ST plays from Mathieu as well as a long TD run that Jefferson busted. A great play, but a rare huge TD run, especially with teams no longer having to respect the pass and stacking the box.

Georgia -- Georgia had our number, but not the players. They completely stopped our one-dimensional offense in the first half. We might have even had negative yards, but I definitely remember 0 first downs. Again, ST was our offensive catalyst and our physicality and superior conditioning eventually wore down a Georgia defense that was otherwise more than capable of stopping an anemic offense.

Heading into the championship game, there were clear problems with the offense, which became one-dimensional and ultra-conservative over time with Jefferson at the helm. Not having a plan to jump start an offense that clearly had issues against another outstanding defensive team was a philosophical and strategically dumb move by Miles, one that resulted in me losing much respect for him as a head coach and something that has been repeatedly cited in the national media resulting in him being laughed at and rightfully so.

I compiled some numbers for our games against top 25 teams and separated them between those where Lee got most of the snaps and those where Jefferson got the majority of the snaps against. If you look at the numbers, it is clear that our team was better early in the season and began to struggle offensively later in the year. Many reasons could have contributed to this, but I believe that changing the team’s offensive philosophy and becoming conservative and predictable was the cause and I believe that Les Miles either consciously or subconsciously began to play scared and made the decisions that he did, which ultimately cost us a championship. My questions continues to be why fix what wasn’t broken?

Running plays to passing plays:
Mostly Lee:
Oregon: 48/22 = 31% pass
Miss St.: 38/27 = 42% pass
West Virginia: 41/28 = 41% pass
Florida: 49/14 = 22% pass (Jefferson: 3/4, 61 yards, 1 TD)
Auburn: 36/23 = 39% pass (Jefferson: 2/3, 54 yards, 1 TD)

Mostly Jefferson:
Alabama: 41/17 = 29% pass (Jefferson: 6/10, 67 yards)
Arkansas: 46/29 = 39% pass (Jefferson: 18/29, 208 yards, 1 TD, 1 int)
Georgia: 35/13 = 27% pass (Jefferson: 5/13, 30 yards, 1 TD, 0 int)
Alabama: 27/17 = 39% pass (Jefferson: 11/17, 53 yards, 0 TD, 1 int)

Mostly Lee:
Oregon: 10/22, 98 yards, 1 TD, 0 int
Miss St: 21/27, 213 yards, 1 TD, 1 int
West Virginia 16/28, 180 yards, 3 TD, 0 int
Florida: 10/14, 215 yards, 2 TD, 1 int
Auburn: 16/23, 219 yards, 3 TD, 0 int

Mostly Jefferson:
Alabama: 9/17, 91 yards, 0 TD, 2 int
Arkansas: 18/29, 208 yards, 1 TD, 1 int
Georgia: 5/13, 30 yards, 1 TD, 0 int
Alabama: 11/17, 53 yards, 0 TD, 1 int

AVERAGES
Plays/game
Lee: 65.2
Jefferson: 56.3

% of pass plays:
Lee: 35% (pretty much identical between the two)
Jefferson: 34%

Passing yards/game:
Lee: 185 yards
Jefferson: 96 yards

TDs/game:
Lee: 2
Jefferson: 0.5

Int/game:
Lee: 0.4
Jefferson: 1


So while Miles is a winning coach and a good leader, he should have been aware of an increasingly poor offense and either fixed the problem or at least had a plan whenever we stalled big time, which was predictable both subjectively by watching our games and seeing us struggle or by looking at the numbers.

Athlon are a bunch of hacks. Les Miles has 2 SEC titles and 2 rightful Nattys. Saban's didn't earn the 2011 title. How media outlets can overlook or ignore the bullshite of 2011 blows me away. If LSU doesn't get fricked there, these dumbass critics are talking about how great Les is with 2 Nattys, which he rightfully deserves. LSU would have skull fricked the deserved opponent OSU. I don't guess we are considered the fact that LSU annually gets fricked by the schedule as well. frick the media.

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Just tried to employ the same game plan as the first game.

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He started a different quarterback than he did in the first game. We also upped the pass to run ratio by over 33%. The numbers suggest that he tried a different game plan but it was not successful. The deep passes in the first half that just missed also evidence that intent. Not being able to successfully implement a gameplan is not the same thing as not trying it. I recall how frustrating it was to watch, and perhaps we should have kept trying it later in the game. But it was not as if we didn't even try to stretch it out at all.