Miles staying at LSU

However, in a surprising twist of events, LSU athletic director Joe Alleva announced to the media that Miles would remain the football coach following a 19-7 victory.

After the game, the players lifted Miles on their shoulders and carried him down the field toward the student section as the crowd chanted “Keep Les Miles! By the time we got to the end of the game and carrying Coach Miles, he was pretty light, but I was exhausted”.

A source told Schad on Friday that LSU leadership was “heavily in favor” of a change but that a final decision had not been made and that Miles had not been formally informed he would not return. He also reached 100 wins faster than any coach in LSU history.

“It’s great to be the head coach at LSU, ” Miles said. “It’s a joy. It’s nice for them to come say to me, ‘Hey, the job you’ve been doing, you can still do it.’ I like that”. LSU came into the game averaging 438 yards of offense per game, were held to just 250 by the Tigers.

The crowd roared when Miles strolled onto the field prior to kickoff for a ceremony to recognize the LSU seniors. 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&M already had done a decent job of quieting the Tigers and their fans with its play on the field, in clutching a precarious one-point lead, thanks to Seals-Jones’ touchdown catch, for much of the game.

Tailback Leonard Fournette carried seven times for 45 yards and scored on a 4-yard run with 2:50 left on that death knell drive and finished with 159 yards on 13 carries to become the school’s all-time leading rusher in a season with 1,741 yards on 252 carries, surpassing Charles Alexander’s 1,686 yards on 311 carries in 1977.

When asked if Miles had any hard feelings about the last few weeks, he said: “No. There’s probably a guy or two I’d like to meet in an alley and have a little straight-talk with”. The Tigers (8-3, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) were eliminated from contention for an SEC crown with two games left in the regular season and endured the first three-game skid of Miles’ 11 seasons at LSU. He completed just 7 of 21 attempts for 83 yards and was intercepted once. “We will go forward together and win championships here at LSU”.

Enough was enough for the LSU defense Saturday night. And if LSU loses its bowl game in desultory fashion, Miles’s seat will start to warm right back up.

LSU’s Derrius Guice returned the second-half kickoff 75 yards to the Texas A&M 25-yard line, but the Aggie defense stiffened and Domingue missed a 46-yard field goal try at the 12:19 mark of the third quarter.

Miles’ postgame interview with the SEC Network was delayed because – as he said on air – he had to fulfill the Tigers’ postgame tradition of singing the school’s alma mater.