Les Miles

A very large part of that was due to our total shut down of oppenants through the first 4 or 5 weeks... but if you didn't recognize a staunch drop off in defense as the season went on then you're in denial.

 

Outstanding post! Saban should be recognized for bringing LSU football back to excellence, but Miles has many strengths that need to recognized, too. Neither of them are perfect by any means. But, CLM is a very good overall coach. I will say that many people reference the Saban years b/c they were overall a high point, and they occurred on the heels of a disastrous decade of revolving coaches who could not get the job done. Many fear a return to this, and that is what drives their seeming passive-aggressiveness. I am guilty of this from time to time, too, and it all stems from the passion of being an LSU football fan.

 

It is pretty interesting to see how common it is for coaches to hire their relatives.

National-Championship-winning coaches that have done it include Bop Stoops (hired his brother Mike as his DC at Oklahoma), Pete Carroll (hired his son Brennan as his TE coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Southern Cal), Steve Spurrier (hired his son Steve, Jr as his OC at South Carolina), Bobby Bowden (hired his son Jeff as his OC at Florida State), Lou Holtz (hired his son Skip as his OC at South Carolina), and Joe Paterno (hired his son Jay to various positions at Penn State, including QB coach, WR/TE coach, and Recruiting Coordinator).

Other coaches that have done it include Bo Pelini (hired his brother Carl as his DC at Nebraska), Terry Bowden (hired his brother Tommy as his OC at Auburn), Mike Stoops (hired his brother Mark as his DC at Arizona), Houston Nutt (hired his brother Danny), Lane Kiffen (hired the brother of his hot wife, David Reaves), Mike Price (hired his son Eric), etc.

This is what Pete Carroll said about it:

"I think it's important to have people you know and can count on," Carroll told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2005. "I know why guys hire their sons. You have a relationship. It could be a problem, but you know that you've got someone with your best interests at heart. (Brennan) can tell me something that nobody else can tell me. I see it as an asset."

 

I don't recall ever stating that LSU had a bad OFFENSE late in the season last year, as a matter of fact we were averaging I believe around 38 or so points a game. But yeah last season our Offense took pressure off the D as well by scoring points.

 

Unlike guys Miles hired like Crowton (who has been OC for the Chicago Bears, Oregon, Georgia Tech) and Pelini (who has been DC for Oklahoma and Nebraska), neither Mallory or Peveto has been a DC at a program like LSU. Mallory's only DC experience was at Western Kentucky in the early 90's and Peveto's only DC experience was at Northwestern Louisiana, Middle Tenn, and Houston. On top of that, both Peveto and Mallory were responsible for doing double-duty as both position coaches and DC this season.

If you couldn't see any problem with this decision at the time, then you have no room to talk now.

 

I don't think anyone is saying they "couldn't see ANY problem with this decision", just that the choices were an attempt to maintain continuity with the system that the players were already familiar with, and that the decision had merit/logic. Most decisions are not made in a vacuum and have a set of PROs and CONs associated with them. What you are describing were the CONs that many of us were concerned about and agree with now.

 

Untouchable????:rofl:

 

Didn't Bob also hire Mike at Oklahoma?