re: Preparing for Year 7 in the Leslie Edwin Miles Era

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From 1958 to 1972, the LSU football team finished in the Top 10 of one of the 2 major CFB polls in 10 out of 15 seasons. ( LINK) That was a remarkable era, both for LSU and for the SEC. Well, here were are again.

Since a low ebb around 2002, football in the SEC has grown more and more exciting with each passing year. And since 2005, so too has LSU football under Coach Miles. Every year something new and unexpected. Every year a new point of contention and dischord amongst a bickering fanbase. Every year fury and outrage and cynical detachment and elation, all mixed together.

Before we as LSU fans once again take the plunge into fall madness, let's take a chance to look back and reflect on the issues that have faced us over the last 6 season.

YEAR 1: 2005
The Main Fan Issue: Is Miles in over his head coaching at a program like LSU?
Secondary Issue: Can Pelini coach defense?

On January 2, the day LSU named Les Miles as head coach, most fans were not in a mood to celebrate. Since Smoke Laval made the CWS in 2003 and 2004, there were still mostly happy feeling within the fanbase for Skip Bertman, the athletic director since January 2001, but some questioned his first football hire.

In addition, many fans worried that Emmert and Saban (both with LSU from late 1999 to late 2004) were the main forces driving LSU to greater success, and that with both of them recently gone, that the new leadership of Sean O'Keefe, Skip Bertman, and Les Miles would not be up to the challange of maintaining that success.

Many were upset over the timing of Saban's departure, noting that UF had just acquired Urban Meyer and SCAR had just acquired Steve Spurrier. The 2004 season (when LSU struggled mightily to defeat lesser opponents such as Oregon State, Troy, and Ole Miss) and Capital One Bowl loss to Iowa had been somewhat of a letdown after the 2003 NC season, and now it looked as if LSU might recede into the background once again as a bit player in SEC football.

Then came the shocks of Hurricane Katrina on Monday, August 29, and Hurricane Rita on Friday, September 23. The fanbase and the state of Louisiana seemed to rally around Coach Miles and the LSU football team in the aftermath of the disaster, and on September 10, already Week 2 of the CFB season, LSU opened with a rescheduled road game against Arizona State in Tempe, winning in dramatic fashion, 35-31.

Thanks to Rita, LSU did not play its 2nd game until the Week 4 of the CFB season, with a rare Monday night football game against Tennessee in Tiger Stadium. There an emotional 21-0 halftime lead evaporated, turning into a 30-27 overtime defeat. Again, the defense looked awful.

At this point, the team's future looked shaky, but Coach Miles pulled them through, reeling off 9 straight wins in the next 8.5 weeks, 7 of them against SEC competition. In general, we fans were extremely proud of our team for what it accomplished under the circumstances, but under no illusions of its greatness. The 21-17 win against #11 Florida (that made Urban Meyer cry in Baton Rouge) was ugly, with LSU committing 5 turnovers and forcing none. The 20-17 overtime win over #16 Auburn was a magnificent thing of beauty, but still, there were those 218 rushing yards collected by Kenny Irons. The 16-13 overtime win over #4 Alabama on the road was sweet relief. The putrid offensive performance in the 19-17 victory over Arkansas to close out the regular season was just plain relief without the sweetness. Still, for the most part, the reasonable fan was grateful that LSU managed to make it through the season relatively unscathed, with a beautiful 10-1 record intact.

That the team folded in the SECCG against Georgia (the only SEC champ in the last 10 years to lose its bowl game, by the way) could almost be excused. And when Matt Flynn and the boys put a 40-3 whipping on #9 Miami in the Peach Bowl, most of Tiger Nation felt as though we were moving on to bigger and better things with Coach Miles at the helm.



YEAR 2: 2006
The Main Fan Issue: Is Miles capable of ever truly winning the big ones and bringing home a national championship to a dejected fanbase?
Secondary Issue: Is Jimbo Fisher holding us back on offense?

What do you get when you follow up back-to-back 45-3 victories in Weeks 1 & 2 with a 3-7 loss on the road at Auburn due to some of the worst officiating luck in history? One EXTREMELY pissed off fanbase, that's what. That this happened after a 9-10 loss at Auburn in 2004 from a bizarre PAT call didn't help matters one bit.

Hate this strong tends to spill over into all kinds of crazy directions, and we saw a lot of this in 2006. Many Tiger fans will still insist that the '06 team was the most talented collection of football players this program has ever had, and while the 10-23 loss on the road to the eventual NC Gators stung hard and put the final nail in the coffin for LSU's NC hopes, it was the Auburn loss that continued to cause the sharper anguish.

Honestly, the frustration was valid. The criticism of Jimbo Fisher was valid. Although the team put up big stats against vastly outmanned competition, when push came to shove against the big boys of the CFB world, LSU's offense was overly conservative to the point of being sclerotic, and undoubtedly, it cost us games--and almost cost us more.

Coach Miles had a rough time among fans during the tail end of the '06 season, but he would have had it much worse had LSU lost a third game that year. JaMarcus Russell took an offense that was lethargic against decent opposition, and managed to will the team to victory late in games with pure talent. The 28-24 victory at Tennessee, 23-20 victory vs. Ole Miss (in OT!!), and 31-26 victory at Arkansas, are all that stood between the LSU fanbase and complete anarchic rage against the team's underperformance compared with its expectations.

But if the fiasco on the plains stoked the fury of the LSU fanbase, the dominating Sugar Bowl victory over Notre Dame helped soothe the anger. By this time, Fisher had already been interviewing for the head coaching job at UAB, and although that fell through, it wasn't long before he left to become OC at FSU. As he left, Tiger Nation breathed a sigh of relief, and hoped for the best in 2007.



YEAR 3: 2007
The Main Fan Issue: Does Les Miles habitually reward loyalty and favorite players rather than simply utilizing top talent to maximum efficiency and tighter discipline? What would Saban have done?
Secondary Fan Issue: Is it true that Hester only starts because people are jealous of the size and shape of Keiland Williams's calf muscles?
Tertiary Fan Issue: Are LSU's colors truly be said to be purple & gold, or are they really cheddar & blurple?

From start to finish, 2007 was a year on the brink--that is, for the fanbase, if not for the actual team. There have been lots of times, if indeed not most times, when the LSU fanbase has gotten downright silly--few of these times, however, will ever compare to the silliness inherent in 2007, during a season in which Coach Miles managed to win a national championship and completely alienate half the fanbase for being incompetent at the same time.

The comparisons to both Nick Saban and Larry Coker were constant and unyielding. The Tiger Rant had a near meltdown over LSU's opening Thursday night 45-0 victory on the road against Mississippi State. The 28-16 and 34-9 victories over SCAR and Tulane were said to be so ugly that some were embarrassed by them.

And then it came. On Week 6 of the CFB season, one of the greatest

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