That was the craziest day ever--from College Gameday to the press conference to the highly unlikely losses that happened that night to put us in the BCSNCG. At the time, had Les left us, that would be the second coach in three years to declare LSU "not good enough" to stay at for the long haul. It provided some stability to our program. So, I think it was a good thing. It cemented LSU not as a stepping stone to a "better" job, but as a destination. We'll all see now if it makes a difference in the coaching search. Can we reach for the stars this time and actually catch a rising star, instead of someone not at all interesting? If we can, we may have Les to thank for that (in part.)
I think the final nail in the coffin was a little later than 1/9/12. It was the following November when we were about to beat Alabama, only to lose in the last minute of the game. Had we won that game, there is an excellent chance we'd have gone on to win the BCSNCG against ND that Bama was in, instead. Les' fire went out that night--for good.
That game ripped my heart out, and I couldn't sleep right for a week. It haunted my dreams nightly. It hurt SO much worse than the BCSNCG.
My son (CajunKid) and I were at that Bama game and he called it. We were driving with a little over a minute and for that one drive everything Mett threw was caught. We got to our 35-40 yard line and the brakes were put on. Josh looked at me and said, he's playing for field goal. We missed, they drove down and beat us on that missed assignment out of the backfield. Josh looked at me again and said, Miles will never beat Saban again....he was right! I have a feeling if we would have kept it spread out we would have won by either scoring a TD or bleeding down more clock and keeping Chiefs prevent off the field.
Miles-Saban history at Death Valley: 2008: Bama in OT. Lee throws 4 INT, one that was returned for a TD (his specialty), and one in OT 2010: LSU win! Fun game, I was lucky enough to be in the stands 2012: Bama. The single most devastating loss I can remember 2014: Bama in OT. LSU commits an idiotic personal foul to push them back 15 yards (I don't remember much else about this one. Drank a lot that night). Lots of fun, lots of missed opportunities if you're a Tiger fan.
The Bama fans next to us knew we were going to win that game. They were already congratulating us and then we missed the field goal and everything changed. Only one was a jerk but the rest were really good fans, I'd sit next to them again. They were very knowledgeable fans and we enjoyed watching with them. The one guy we almost threw over the fence and watched him splat on the concrete below.
