AD says Miles to stay, LSU beats Texas A&M 19-7

Alleva took the stand and emphatically confirmed that Les Miles will remain the coach of the LSU Tigers.

When Les Miles was carried off the field by his players after beating Texas A&M Saturday night, many suspected it would be the last time the Tiger coach would be on the LSU sidelines.

Instead of leaving Tiger Stadium for the final time as LSU’s head coach, all that was left for Miles to do on Saturday night was dance.

“The season is complete and I want to make it very clear and positive that Les Miles is our football coach and will continue to be our football coach”, Alleva said in the A&M postgame conference.

LSU’s administration had allowed speculation about Miles’ status to fester by refusing to comment on the matter last week, but Alleva stressed that he was only following his policy of waiting until after the season to comment on a coach’s future. And I’m very pleased that Coach Miles is our coach.

Miles has been in Baton Rouge since 2005 and won the 2007 BCS National Championship.

“I agree with Joe”, Miles said and later added that he would consider staff changes. Both played 11 games in the regular season.

Leonard Fournette’s performance gave him LSU’s single-season rushing record at 1,741 yards, surpassing the mark of 1,686 yards set by Charles Alexander in 1977.

“I’m happy. Like I told y’all, I wouldn’t want to go to war with anyone but him”, said running back Leonard Fournette, who ran for 159 yards in the win. “He has had games with 200 or 250 yards, so I think we did a good job of containing him”.

“And no matter what happens, I’ll always be an LSU Tiger”.

“We wanted to come in here, and we wanted to get a win”, LaCouture said after taking Miles off his shoulders. He knew it was a distraction for his players, but he managed to keep his team focused on what lied ahead during three weeks of adversity.

A look into the decision making process reveals a weird series of decisions, most notably LSU administrators not deciding to retain Miles until the third quarter of the game.

LSU kicker Trent Domingue hit a 32-yard FG.

The Aggies benefited from an overzealous Tigers defense on the opening play of their next drive.

In reality, there were essentially three categories of LSU fans: those who absolutely wanted Miles gone, those who appreciated Miles’ contributions to the program but thought it was time for change, and those who believed Miles deserved at least another year.

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.

LSU got the ball right back on the A&M 20 when LSU’s Devin Voorhies tackle of Christian Kirk on the kickoff caused a fumble that Donte Jackson recovered.