I was just forwarded this email from a friend who works for the state - take it for what it's worth... Miles doesn't exactly excite me like Saban did when he was hired, but he'll do good here. Saban has built the program to a point where Miles will have at least 8 wins every year. One of my best friend from college works for sports information office at Oklahoma St. but is a huge LSU fan. Here is what he emailed me about Miles and his Defensive Coord. at OK St. Bill Clay: > About Les Miles: People here are heartbroken and angry cause OSU gave him a chance to be a head coach at 47 after being a career assistant. He always said he would never leave here cause his family loved it in Stillwater and then lied all week about his interest in LSU. From all accounts he interviewed Christmas night and it was pretty much a done deal after that. Most people in OKLA. believed only Michigan, his alma mater, is where he would eventually leave to when that job would come open. > I think he is a good coach and will do a good job at LSU. It takes a little luck to win a title so he will need that. I forsee a bunch of 8-3, 9-2 type seasons, but keep in mind that he isn't from Louisiana so LSU is not his dream job and not his final destination in my opinion. > He runs a tight ship like Saban, works long hours and is boring and guarded in front of the media. His forte is offense, he likes to run a balanced offense 50-50 and is a very positive person, even when his team loses. > His weakness to me is his loyalty to his coaches to a fault. His D-coordinator, Bill Clay who is going with him is like 60 years old and our defenses were putrid and very soft all four years he was here. I don't know what his title will be at LSU, but I hope that he is just a positon coach or consultant and not the coordinator. > Long story, but wanted to make sure you knew everything about him. His wife was a former hoops coach and looks like a stick figure with chia pet hair. > About Bill Clay: He runs a "soft" 4-2-5. He actually had Top 10 defenses at UAB before he got here. > He constantly blamed the players here for the defenses lack of stopping anybody. It is in theory a bend but don't break defense, but that means teams like Baylor would put up big numbers as well. > LSU has the hosses on defense that is for sure, so there will be no excuses if the D sucks. > Here is my theory and just my speculation is that he will try to have a top 10 defense next year and then retire proving that his defense was not the problem but the players were with Muschamp taking back over. Just my guess, could be completely wrong. > More about Les Miles: In my personal dealings with him, I found him to be a charming family guy that says all the right things. The OKla media protected him so it will be interesting to see how he does at Baton Rouge. As an LSU fan I don't really understand why they chose him, but I think Skip is putting his rep on the line on this one.
Let's hope this isn't true. Charlie Mac and Dinardo both lost their jobs for being too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.
Bill Clay should worry you guys. The above post is dead on accurate of Les Miles. He was under tons of pressure here to get rid of Bill Clay.
You haven't heard? He offered Muschamp a positions coach job. Bill Clay is your new DC. Thing is, with your talent that stubborn old man will probably switch to the 4-3 as his base and get the needed QB pressure. He will probably finish next year with a top 5 defense and then retire just to piss off all of OSU fans that wanted him to change schemes.
During his press conference, he stated that he didn't have the right guys to run a more dominant defense. I believe his quote was something along the lines of, "you can't ask a player to do something he knows he can't." and said something to the point that if you do do something like that, you're going to lose. If Clay's defense isn't up to par here, it won't be for lack of player talent that 's for sure.
