Les Miles Fired Or Resigning From LSU Football Program? Salary For Tigers

This season, it is now 10-1 with the head coach having a shot at winning his ninth conference championship and a chance to advance to the College Football Playoff.

Plus, with Nick Saban’s Alabama program running roughshod in recent years, it would make sense for the Tigers to try to answer with a coach who operates his program in much the same fashion. They’re looking around the rest of the SEC and watching down-and-out programs like Ole Miss rebuild and ascend to greater heights than what LSU has enjoyed of late.

Miles has won 10 or more games seven times in his 11 seasons as LSU’s coach but he has also lost three or more games four years in a row, including this season. One would presume if the administration is comfortable with a million buyout, they know who they want.

In 2007, for example, ESPN’s Herbstreit even reported that Miles had accepted the job to succeed Carr. But the Times-Picayune says that LSU boosters think the $15 million is worth it.

So they pulled the plug on Solich, and ventured upon a harsh reality: Coaches weren’t interested in coming to Lincoln.

Same goes for Claude Felton, athletic director at UGA. Bill Arnsparger came from the Miami Dolphins in 1984 where he was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.

After three soul-crushing losses, however, the Bayou Bengals have painfully crashed back down to earth. Tennessee had high expectations.

LSU has not fired a coach since the week before the regular season finale in 1999 when Gerry DiNardo was let go after two losing seasons – 4-7 and 2-6 in 1998 and 2-8 and 0-7 in 1999. Not so with Miles.

Whether it be poor preparation, clock management, or a general look of being unprepared, Miles has often looked “in over his head” on the LSU sideline.

Without a doubt, Jimbo Fisher is a very interesting option considering the success he’s had at Florida State (both on the field and in recruiting) and his ties to the LSU program.

No disrespect to LSU, one of about a dozen destination jobs in the FBS landscape.

If not Fisher, what’s Plan B for LSU? He knows how to coach under outrageous pressure and would be greeted at Maryland (or at nearly any Big Ten school) as a messiah. His overall record was 152-52 and included two SEC titles and a national championship in 1998. Where is this crowd of compelling coaches that would offer a clear upgrade?

Fisher would owe the school $5 million if he leaves before December 2016.

Then we address some common misconceptions about Fisher and Florida State, which plays in to our belief that Fisher is not likely to leave FSU.

As my esteemed colleague Corey Masisak so eloquently proclaimed recently around the virtual water cooler: “They’re really going to fire Les for a guy who won eight or nine games a couple of times at Rutgers?”