The past two years, this is true. But Miles also has a few legendary beatdowns during his tenure--with only one beatdown on us (Florida '08). Last night, we were well on our way to beating UNC into submission--and we did. Erin Andrews commented that UNC was completely deflated coming out of the tunnel for the second half. We got sloppy and complacent in the 2nd half. If not for that, specifically starting to substitute half of the defense on the 1st series of after the half, we should've put 50 on UNC.
Agreed... but how many coaches of top 25 teams have you seen put in replacements and act like the game is in the bag immediately starting the 2nd half? I can see letting up with a 35-40 point lead in the middle of the 4th... but not for 30 full minutes... Kinda boneheaded coaching imo. It's almost as if Miles tries to find new ways to out do himself every game... winning should not be this hard with the kinds of weapons we have on this team period.
I don't understand it, either, but hopefully, they will learn from it. Perhaps they thought it was time to get the defense some experience. Well, did they ever...
That's just it though... we've all been saying this for 2 straight seasons and now looks like it's going to be a 3rd... when do we fix the issues instead of wondering about them?
I think the difference, in my opinion after thinking about it, was that we were beating UNC badly and pulled back. That was our biggest mistake. We got sloppy after that, and the rest is history.
I have tried to be relatively neutral and hopeful in my thinking towards Les, but I can't help but wonder now, is he LSU's Barry Switzer (the Cowboys version, not the Sooners')? Think about it, he follows a very successful coach who resurrects the program, but is of a completely different makeup than the previous coach. He seems to continue the success for a couple of years, but has a much less disciplined style and eventually that leaks into the program. I am NOT talking about player behavior, I'm talking about a disciplined approach to the game. Saban has been hashed and re-hashed, and I I don't want to get into all of that, but one thing I remember about his teams is that when they got up on people, they usually had the killer instinct to keep the foot on the throat and finish it. Way too many times under Les the kill shot never gets applied and leaves opponents a chance. You're going to have games where you play well and not so well. You will win some and lose some. You will have good players and great players. But when blood is in the water, you've got to finish them off!
My problem is that Miles hinders our ability to win. Losing is ok if you have your best effort... but we gave up last night with 30 minutes left to play. We will not win many games with that mentality and things won't change under Miles... we've seen it for 2 straight seasons now and evidence of the same thing this season... except with our away schedule this season we'll be likely to finish above .50o... only "gimme" wins I see is ULM and McNeese... 3-9 anyone?
This isn't really the case. The '03 NCG comes immediately to mind. Saban went so conservative after Mauck threw an interception that we were fighting against OU until the bitter end. I actually think Miles pulled more of a Saban last night. Miles used to be more relentless (Miami, Georgia Tech, Va. Tech, etc.). Last night, he pulled up short.
