Good perspective............ Cavalcade of Whimsy - The Positives By Pete Fiutak CollegeFootballNews.com Posted Sep 25, 2006 ............................... 6. Les Miles and LSU Many LSU fans were worried the program was about to go into the tank after Nick Saban left for the Miami Dolphins and Les Miles took over. Remembering that Miles had to keep his team focused through the Hurricane Katrina disaster last year, his 15-3 start is impressive. The losses came by three to Tennessee last year, to Georgia in the SEC title game, and by four in a nasty loss to Auburn this season. Remember, Saban only had one season with fewer than three losses...................... http://cfn.scout.com/2/572734.html
not to take away from your article but this comment is one of the worst in football history and anyone who tries to use it has no point whatsoever. but i normally like fiutak.
from the perspective of accomplishment crystal: ) then i agree, but it's hard to disagree with fiu's context that clm has taken the ball and run with it.
no even without the crystal. what saban took over here and turned into an instant winner was like taking a program similar to Moo U currently and turn into a bowl contender. LSU had 7 of 10 losing seasons in the 90's? had tons of let's say, questionable characters on campus and a joke of a BOS along with facilities. unfortunately the joke BOS is still with us. the rest is light-years ahead from facilities to character of personnel all attributable to emmert and saban directly. saban took over a bottom tier program with unlimited potential while les took over a top 5 program with the money in place. les may turn out just as good but only time will tell.
i agree with your summation, but my point in posting the article was not to compare saban & miles, but to further the point that the program has continued to prosper under miles' leadership while many thought the job was too big for him. 2 regular season losses by a total of 7 points, one in overtime and the other on the last play of the game tells me he's on the right track. i bolded the point that LSU lost games under CNS' reign. some of the folks seem to have forgotten that.
I have to agree, you can't compare the two totally different situations that both coaches came into. However with Miles being such an unknown commodity you will have a hard time arguing that Miles hasn't done an outstanding job keeping the program on track thus far. Many a coach has taken over a top notch program only to fall flat on his face(see Archer) and Miles has proven up to the challenge thus far although there is much work to do before he reaches Sabans status.
Nine wins was always considered to be a good, winning regular season in the tough SEC with six teams in the upper tier. The move to 12-game seasons might move that benchmark up to ten, but I ain't really sure yet. You don't much hear about schools firing coaches who average 9 wins a season.
Archer didn't inherit the talent Miles has. That being said, it took Archer a couple-3 years to run it in the toilet. Time will tell.
