I am fairly new to the board and have been amazed at the venom and vitrol between the haters and lovers of Les Miles. The haters see him as both the devil behind every mistake and the fool who can't do anything withput screwing it up. In general the lovers find every excuse that absolves him. I have been hard on him for somethings and hopefully acknowledged his attributes. In general I think he is just on a slightly lower tier than coaches like Saban, Tressel and a very few others (not Meyer). He does most things well enough. Here is how I try to judge him. In many ways he fits my idea of the head coach as CEO of a corporation. He is ultimately responsible for the overall product and performance. He will be judged on not only wins & losses but how the team looks and acts on & off the field. He will also be judged on the performance of his subordinates. How he is graded should be based on long term and not on day to day (though day to day performance is a guide) He recruits well and has players with not only talent but character. He teaches team and it seems the kids respond well. As the players are the heart of the product. He gets a good grade here A- His selection and management of assistents is the next most important function. Here he seems to have two faces. On Defense he has shown flexability and willingness to change coaches on the D. Remember when he was first hired he wanted to hire some passive D coordinator and when he was howled down he chose Pellani. He saw the failure of Malveto and changed after 1 year. He seems to allow Chavis room to run the D as he feels best. He deserves a good grade here. B+ On the offensive side he is less successful. He & Jimbo seemed to clash but Les didn't run him off as Fla State was too good to pass. He chose badly with Crowton & Studs. There is no defense. As I noted earlier through this year there was a credible reason to keep him. However Crowton & Studs fail so badly that he must move this year. Their primary failure is that they don't develop their players. JJ is no better and Lee should have been better handled. The line showed slight improvement this year but they don't play to their talent. There is no rhyme or reason to the offensive scheme (if there is one). I think he made good hires in Frank Wilson & B Gonzales as it seems the receivers & backs have improved performance (even after today's drops) IF it is a prelimary to cutting Crowton it will positive. So far his grade here is poor at best. C-/D+ Game management. Here is the conundrum. He does crazy things but they generally work. He scares me more than I like but his results. I also have to say I like that he is not conventional. He has serious time management issues even when he suceeds. On results he deserves a B-/B+ on appearances a C at best. Managing a huge organization like LSU football requires vision and flexibility. One of Bear Bryants greatest and unacknowledged talents was flexibility. He made major changes when required (pushing to integrate SEC football and going to the wishbone). I think Les has flexibility as he has demonstrated in changing coaches (except Crowton & we don't know the whole story). I think he also has a vision of what it takes to be successful and is getting his players to buy in. I will give him a B here. What does that mean overall? What I said earlier he is a very good HC and just a tad below the great ones. I would take him over all but Saban in the SEC. Do other coaches manage games better? Yes Petrino & Nutt but I would rather have Les than either. He is a B++ coach. One of the posters calling for Miles' head was bitching that it may be 5-6 years before we got another NC. Really? How many years between Bobby Bowdens NCs or Stoops or Mac Browns? We are in the discussion every year and with a decent OC we have great prospects. Look at the overall and make your judgements. Don't let emotion rule or nit picking cloud your judgement. Sorry this is so long but the only way I could put it all together. Please discuss. :geaux:
red will be here in the morning to tell you the paragraph is your friend. Too long for me but I'm sure it's a quality post. :thumb:
Nicely stated. Miles has the same problems as other CEO coaches, in that his fortunes rise and fall on the quality of his assistants. And on that it seems like he's been inconsistent. For every Chavis or Billy Gonzales he hires, there's a D. J. McCarthy and Crowton. I have to disagree on the flexibility point. In fact I think Les is maddeningly inflexible when it comes to game planning. He takes entire seasons to make personnel decisions, and I don't think he has the ability to think on his feet and switch gears when the script isn't working mid-game. He's a CEO who can supervise his immediate underlings well, but I'd never want him as a floor manager. And while he rakes in top recruiting classes, there doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason to the players he recruits and what he wants to do with them. Look no further than the yearly simultaneous recruiting of both pocket and running QBs. As I've said before I think with the status quo Les gets you 9 wins max. His chaotic style and inability to fully develop and utilize his players translates to good, but not elite, teams. Does that justify his $3.75M/yr price tag? I don't know.
I also didn't read all of that. If what he was trying to say is that "Miles isn't the worst ever, Miles isn't the best ever" than I agree with it. Spaces and numbering of points make it easier to read. :thumb:
i couldn't read all that, use spaces next time, makes it easier. Look, the so called Les Miles apologists are only saying keep the fire les miles crap to yourself. I don't recall anyone on here say that Miles is above criticism. Criticize all you want, he deserves it, just keep the fire les miles garbage to yourself.
It took me a few days to finish reading all of that, but I have to say it is probably one of the most fair assessments of Miles performance as HC of the LSU Tigers. I give you an A for content, an A+ for effort, a C- on structure and delivery, and a A on overall intent.:thumb:
