These should be the best of times for Les Miles.
The quirky LSU coach will begin a quest for his second national championship Saturday when the Tigers travel to Wisconsin in the season-opener. Miles is returning 17 starters, tied with Tennessee for the most in the Southeastern Conference. Among the returnees is Heisman Trophy-hopeful Leonard Fournette in the backfield.
The aforementioned “should” is the operative word when discussing a guy who survived a coup. Miles received a death-row reprieve last year when he was on the brink of being fired. It may wind up being merely a stay of execution if he doesn’t win and win big in 2016. It will be cheaper to fire Miles this year if LSU underachieves because his buyout is $12.9 million now as opposed to the $15 million it would have cost last season.
A $12.9 million buyout for Miles isn’t chump change but it is a manageable number if LSU boosters want Miles gone.
By any objective measure, Miles is not your typical college coach. He eats grass, played a cop in a movie and gives some of most bizarre press conferences in college football. Considering most football coaches are say-nothing bores, we should thank Miles for breaking the monotony.
We’re going miss The Mad Hatter when he’s gone. That could be as soon as this winter. Normally having a national championship contender is something to celebrate. LSU is a preseason top 5 team in the Associated Poll and number No.6 in the coaches poll. That’s a positive for the program but for Miles, it’s just more pressure.
When’s the last time a coach with a team ranked that high was worried about his job security? Even Lane Kiffin was on fairly solid ground entering 2012 when USC was the preseason No. 1 team in the nation. It wasn’t until the Trojans imploded to go 7-6 that the pitchfork and torch-carrying mob came after him.
Only in the SEC can a coach go 9-3 and almost get axed. Miles’ biggest crime is that he’s 3-7 against Alabama since Nick Saban took over, including dropping five-straight. The flip side to that equation is that plenty of coaches have losing records against Saban and most of them would kill for three wins. Saban is 32-6 lifetime against current SEC coaches. Four of those losses are to Miles and Ole’ Miss’ Hugh Freeze.
Of course, LSU could finish behind Alabama again in 2016. The Crimson Tide is the national championship favorite. The Tigers haven’t finished ahead of Alabama since 2011 when it won the Western Division. But this year, the Alabama-LSU showdown is in Baton Rouge – a game that figures to have major playoff implications.
If Miles sustains another Alabama loss, that could stoke the flames to end to his 12-year run as LSU coach. The national championship he won in 2007 already seems like eons ago and it doesn’t help his cause that the title was won by a team featuring Saban recruits (Saban coached LSU from 2000-04). Miles also wasn’t helped by that 2011 national championship game loss to Saban’s Crimson Tide.
Still, the pressure on Miles might seem hard to believe given that he is 112–32 with a pair of SEC titles at LSU. He’s the longest tenured coach in the league. Coacheshotseat.com ranks Miles the seventh-most likely coach to the fired this year, though he’s also one of five SEC coaches in the top eight.
But that’s life in the nation’s most high-profile conference. Auburn booted Gene Chizik two years after winning 2010 the national championship. Chizik’s replacement Gus Malzahn was lauded after guiding Auburn to a surprise appearance in the 2013 national championship game in his first season. Now he too may lose his job if Auburn doesn’t turnaround after a down year.
It’s quite possible that three coaches in the SEC West, Texas A&M’s Kevin Sumlin, Miles and Malzahn, will not survive after this season. Maybe that number grows to four if the NCAA investigation turns sour for Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze.
The person who will have considerable say over Miles’ future is athletic director Joe Alleva. He recently said that his relationship with Miles is “very, very good. In fact, it’s never been better.”
“I think what happened last November was actually good for everybody,” Alleva said on radio interview with ESPN 104.5 in Baton Rouge. “I think it was good for Les. I think it was good for me. I think it was good for the players.”
That seems like an odd thing to say for an athletic director who, when he was at Duke, hired three football coaches in 11 years. Alleva has been in charge of LSU athletics since 2008. Like most ADs, he probably wants to get credit for the school’s athletic success.
Could LSU upgrade at football coach? Maybe. Maybe not. It could end up worse off. Just ask Tennessee. The Volunteers still haven’t fully recovered from pushing Phil Fulmer out the door. The same fate could await LSU if it ousts Miles.
“I’ve always enjoyed representing LSU,” Miles said. “For me, to go to a game thinking anything differently would just be a mistake.”
Be careful what you wish for Tiger fans. You may miss Les Miles when he’s gone.
