Miles remaining as LSU coach

Miles spoke candidly at his post-game press conference about the last few weeks, coaching with the constant questions about his future.

Moments later, Miles met with LSU President F. King Alexander, who assured him he would remain as the Tigers’ football coach following two weeks of his job hanging in the balance as LSU athletic director Joe Alleva and some members of the Board of Supervisors readied to fire him. Alleva took the stand and emphatically confirmed that Les Miles will remain the coach of the LSU Tigers. “But you just figure if you’re third and you go to a championship game away from home to the No. 9 team in the country and win by 30-something points, whatever it was, you can only move up possibly, but you sure wouldn’t move back”.

Victory over Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4) did not come easily for the Tigers (8-3, 5-3), who trailed until Derrius Guice’s 50-yard scoring run in the third quarter. Holding a record of 111-32 over nine seasons isn’t good enough? He also won a National Championship and two SEC Championships with the Tigers. This is something Joe wants to work towards fully.

Just as Alexander and defensive tackle Christian LaCouture did in carrying Miles off the field, the faction of Miles supporters within LSU’s fan base made their opinions clear all week.

Some of the very aspects of LSU’s game that have bothered Miles’ critics for years showed up against the Aggies (8-4, 4-4).

“He’s a great player”, defensive lineman Miles Garrett said. That drive we had, the second-to-last drive when we scored, that took it out of me right there.

Here’s to a great week, although it will be a weekend without LSU football.

So ended one of the most hectic weeks in Miles’ tenure. Players carried the embattled Miles off the field, and “Les Miles!” chants rung throughout the venue before the game and after. You have to win all the time.

“I want you to know, one, they’re tall”, Miles said of his purple and gold elephants.

Shaq was hardly the only Tigers fan showing support for Miles at Saturday’s game.

“LSU played very well on defense”, Sumlin said, “but with six minutes to go, it’s still a six-point game”. Over the last ten seasons, no college football coach has been more entertaining than Les Miles and no program has been as consistently good as LSU.

During the “Tiger Walk”, from the team busses to the stadium, Miles was greeted like a hero as he waved to the crowd, at times pausing and turning around as if to soak it all in.

Another likely factor is LSU’s incoming recruiting class. By many accounts, the Tigers have a top three recruiting class coming in next year and, if you were to get rid of the head coach and his staff who recruited these high schoolers, the nation’s top recruits could look elsewhere.

Although Miles and his coaches train their players to ignore outside distractions, some were willing to admit the previous week had been hard. Then on Saturday night he watched Coach Martyr cheered before the game like a champion – not someone who had lost three straight games after trailing by a combined 55-0 in the first halves. “And so, to me, it’ll be nice to reacquaint myself with some of the guys that now know that I can be here”.