It's really strange to watch the Wolverines' coaching search implode. I guess they simply don't have experience in hiring a football coach in the new age of instant media. But I've never seen a sports obsession this deep and this public. Yesterday, in front of God and the entire world, CLM signs his name to a contract extension that will keep him in Baton Rouge until 2012. He has, more than a few times, said with deep and unpracticed emotion that his home is now in Louisiana. Yet look at today's Detroit Free Press. They and U-M still think Miles is their #1 candidate! Unreal. And a little sad. :milesmic: http://freepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071208/SPORTS06/71208010/1054
Yeah, I've heard the "buyout clause" thrown around on several of the ESPN shows (tv & radio) covering they're old buddy Herbstreit's butt.
Look, I don't want even to THINK about it, but it's absolutely true that Les Miles is no more committed to LSU today than he was before he signed that contract extension. If he wants to go to Michigan, all he has to do is pay $1.25 million or whatever the buyout is and he can go without contractually being obligated to coach another day for LSU. All the contract extension did was put in writing a guaranteed higher salary for him for a longer period of time. Of course, if he leaves now after all the public hoopla it will not make him any friends in BR. But I am still not sure he won't. I understand he gave an interview to Dan Patrick in which he sounded extremely wistful about the Michigan opportunity. I also think, though, that Michigan would not just have to meet his salary needs but would also have to neutralize Lloyd Carr's influence on the football program (he's going to be the director of football operations and is angling to become their AD soon) and also give Miles free rein to create his own staff, even though Michigan has agreements in place with the current assistants that they can stay another year. It just doesn't appear likely to me that Michigan can meet the requirements Les would have to have. BUT Dan Dierdorf and a bunch of other alumni are very pissed off at what is going on and heads may roll. If so, look out. They're coming after Les with everything they can muster.
Miles new contract changes nothing as far as a buyout to Michigan is concerned. If they really want him and are willing to wait until after the bowl game is played maybe they still get him. I don't think he is going anywhere but it would'nt shock me if he did. Miles was saying the same thing's at Oklahoma State about being happy blah, blah,blah a week before he bolted for LSU.
Timing is everything. Now is not the time for Les to return to Michigan. The ego's of Martin, Carr and others have to screw this hiring process up and hang their hat on who eventually will say yes. I'm guessing that selection will not be supported and will not succeed. In 4 or 5 years Michigan will pick up the phone and call Les home without an interview process. Michigan will have learned a lesson and the check book will open to support the football program. Then it will be Les' call if he wants the job at close to 60 years of age.
Yes, but the Oklahoma State-to-LSU move was immeasurably less public than the current Miles-Stays-at-LSU story. If Miles went to U-M now, he would be an instant whipping boy for the media, and a disgrace in Louisiana. :tigerhead
i agree. plus, i would think (hope) that if miles were considering the move, he would have just dragged out the contract negotiations until after the ncg. seems like that would have been fairly easy to do.
Michigan's search is an embarrassment...even the NEW YORK TIMES says so in an article today about Schiano's refusal to talk about the job: The Michigan coaching search, on the other hand, has taken a step backward after Schiano and Louisiana State Coach Les Miles declined to pursue the university’s overtures. Athletic Director Bill Martin seems to have been unprepared for the search, even though he had known for months that Carr intended to retire. Carr announced his retirement Nov. 20, but the Wolverines have made little progress in finding a successor.
Not just here in La., but I would think it would stick to him in Michigan as well. I get the impression that Michigan would put the integrity of the process up there alongside who they get for coach. The obsessive coverage may have made it impossible for Miles to go now, and keep his honor intact. If he does go, I am more inclined to think it will happen a few years from now, when/if the new Michigan hire fails.
