Any AD worth his salt has a wish list of people he wants to go after if the day ever comes. I like Miles as a person and as someone who runs a clean program. But at the end of the day Alleva's decision is going to be a dollars-and-cents one. He will ask whether LSU is getting a big enough return on its $3.75M/year investment. What happens this season will go a long way toward answering that question definitively, but he hasn't done a lot of favors for himself post-2007 when it comes to fan perception. As far as any possibility of Miles getting the boot this season, it absolutely will not happen unless something truly disastrous goes down (4-5 win season). What happens after 2011 and beyond when LSU negotiates his contract is a different matter.
To fire miles over just 1 9 win season no. However, I think it is safe to say that LSU was lucky to have 9 wins this season. No doubt, the team looked very poorly coached. It is not a matter of getting rid of Miles for 1 9 win season; it is getting rid of Miles for little to no growth in the program. When Saban left, he didn't leave the program perfect. It was good, but room for improvement. Some things Miles has done is recruit very well, however I feel this is mostly due to the expectation that LSU will once again return to the top 5 they are capable of. If 9 win seasons become a trend for Miles, his recruiting will suffer at some point and that is justification to fire miles for 9 win seasons. There is more to the program than just the head coach, however as head coach it is Mile’s job to ensure every part of the team is working as intended. It is obviously not at this point and it is on Miles to replace the pieces that left from the 2006 and 2007 seasons. That is why Miles gets paid the big bucks, to compete for championships, not win 9 games or fewer 3 years in a row.
If we were to fire a coach with the winning percentage of Miles, we would wander in a wasteland again for over 20 years, like we did when we fired Charlie Mac. It just isn't good business, in the respect of what coach is going to want to take over a program where expectations aren't realistic?
I agree. I will admit that I have lost a lot of confidence in Miles over the last two seasons. However, unless LSU has a specific candidate lined up to come in, it would be extremely irresponsible to fire Miles now or even after another 9 win season. I do not feel like a coaching vacuum is an improvement over the current staff at this point.
The problem Coach Miles has this year is the fact that he does not have a QB like a Matt Mauck or a Matt Flynn. Who can manage the game, one QB thows it to soon (Lee) and the other holds the ball to long (Jefferson). LSU has a hard schedule a head of them as well. But if you want to run with the big dogs you have to play the top teams. I like this years schedule. !twocrystals! !twocrystals!
That’s the big thing with all of these Miles should be fired fans. None of them have a viable replacement. Someone who will do better, on the field, in recruiting, and off the field. It would be totally irresponsible to fire him for another 9 win season. That said, should the 3 loses come at the hands of Bama, UF, and Ole Miss again that might be a different story. The masses will not stand for another season of mediocre play and losing to these 3 rivals in the same season again. As much as we didn’t look sharp past year, we still were only 1 play or 1 correct officiating call away from possibly winning these games. If our OL play improves, and our running game improves, the D stays the same to better, and our QB play doesn’t regress these should all be winnable games. We do have a tough schedule ahead of us this year and a 9 win season is very possible, but with the right improvements it could be a 10 + win season. My biggest concerns are show me improvement on the field and don’t lose to Bama, UF, and Ole Miss. Win at least 2 and we will end up with a 9+ win season, and I’m ok with that.
Ok.. first, Ouch.. Easy with the font man. And you can go back and say "what I meant was" all you want. Your original statement was as follows.. To which, I said it's not going to happen. I'm saying it's not gonna happen this year, and probably not next year. Don't let your desire or opinion of what would happen get mixed up with how things work. As far as the "he's getting paid to win championships" argument, well there are many other coaches out there in the NCAA that are getting paid for the same thing, yet only 1 can deliver per year. So no, he's not getting paid to win championships, he's getting paid in hopes of winning championships. And furthermore, if you look at it he would have been making much less had he not won a NC in 2007, so he's not getting paid for future championships, he's getting paid for the one he brought us. Had LSU not won that one (or any SEC Championships), Miles wouldn't be making 3.75M a year. People seem to conveniently forget that. His contract didn't start at $3.75M and specify there had to be a championship. It was conditional upon his winning a championship. Nebraska AD Steve Pederson fired Frank Solich in 2003 because 9 wins wasn't up to par with Nebraska standards. Pederson said he was not going to "let Nebraska gravitate back to mediocrity"... Ironically, it took until this past season for them to get more than 9 wins in a season. They've lost 30 games in the last 6 seasons since they got rid of Solich. I'd say that's the epitome of mediocrity.
Coach Miles is going to push every button he can to have a sucessful team. If this team isn't snorting fire from the gate with North Carolina, I'm shocked. CLM has felt the wrath of the fans and he understands the implications of cashing a 4 million dollar check each year. At this very moment he's trying to turn LSU into a collective "Bobby Boucher." If he can get them to just visualize the Crimson Tide each week the Tigers will be too successful. :thumb: I like your new avy and sig. kind of a variation of the same theme. I may be heading that way myself. Let me run my latest idea by you.
You are correct, Miles knows what’s at stake this year and I think we will see him have our Tigers back in full force. Yes, my ava and sig pics are pretty similar to before, I wanted a bit of change but couldn’t bring myself to let go of my kids favorite movies. Especially since they are already bugging me to go see Pirates 4, which has only just started production. Kinda difficult to explain to 7,5,3 yr olds that it takes time for these things even if they are already seeing promotions for it. BTW I think your new idea is gonna go over HUGE.
